ThiefSlipping
by Aquailita
Summary: After waking up one morning with a memory lapse and nailing the Millenium Ring to the wall, Ryou goes to hang out with Yugi. On the way there he meets his kitty look-alike, who is about to drastically affect his life. Ryou bumps into Marik, who is looking for Bakura, but not the one he has just met. Find out what happens when Ryou Bakura meets Marik Ishtar! Thiefshipping. Abridged.
1. 1: Hammer and Nail

**[EDIT: I fixed up some of the stuff in these next few chapters. Only like conventional errors and some grammar stuff. And the pairing name, because I finally decided to fix the spelling of "thiefshipping". For those of you who are seeing this for the first time, don't worry, you haven't missed out on anything.]**

**I got this absolutely CRAZY idea when I was watching a theifshipping vid on YouTube. We all know that thiefshipping is a Marik/YamiBakura pairing. But I wondered something. I haven't watched past Season 2 yet, but so far, in all of the YuGiOh I've seen, regular, abrigded, fanart, and other stuff, I have never seen or read or watched any situation with Ryou Bakura and Marik being face to face. So here is my maybecrack attempt at a fanfic on what would happen if such a thing should occur. [EDIT as of 9/20/12: I am now up to season 5. And I now know of Angstshipping and have seen stuff of it. BUT THIEFSHIPPING IS THE BEST EVAH!]**

**This first chapter is kind of what you people might call a "drabble" or maybe its not cuz I don't really know the exact definition of 'drabble'. But it's basically just an intro so deal with it. X3**

**I hope you like the crappy title I used. It just came to me, although I don't know what I mean by "slipping".**

**Whatever.**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Bakura woke up to greet the day. He looked out the window and started his daily routine of recalling yesterday. As he went through his memories...

Wait a minute...

Yup, it had happened again. He couldn't go through yesterday's memories because he didn't _have_ any memory of yesterday.

He looked down at the Millenium Ring around his neck. As always, the string that held it up didn't break in his sleep. "Ugh. I swear, this ring sure is annoying, I wish I could get rid of it." He remebered the first time he tried to ditch the bloody thing. He simply left it at home. But then halfway through the day, he had another memory lapse and found the bloddy thing around his neck again. "Nothing but trouble. And annoying."

He got out of bed and got ready for the day. He put on his favorite striped shirt and jeans.

As he was eating breakfast, he wondered what he should do that day. "Maybe I could check in with Yugi. Haven't seen him in a while. But then again, maybe I have but forgot about it. Oh well." He absentmindedly looked over at a painting hung on a nail on the wall. Then he focused on the nail.

"Of course!" he shouted. "Why haven't I thought of this before! It just might work!" He entered a closet and took a hammer and some nails out of a toolbox. He then ran back to his room.

* * *

"There!" Bakura said and he stepped away from the wall.

He had nailed the Millenium Ring to the wall. Tightly. Now it should stay put. Hopefully.

"Should keep the buggaring thing in place. Now to go find Yugi and do something normal and not boring for once." He went over to his desk, grabbed his keys, and put them in his pocket. Then he grabbed his dueling deck and put it into his deck holder around his belt. He might need it because for some reason, a duel happens practically every minute in this city. Usually that happened alot to Yugi and not to him, but he felt like taking it anyway.

"Okay see you later! Not." He said to the Ring, which he was sure could hear him. Then he looked at the string that was still attached to it.

Maybe he should remove that too, just to be safe. Maybe it wouldn't return if it didn't have anything to hang on to. Bakura got a pair of scissors from his desk. He prepared to cut the string. As much as he didn't want to do it, he hadn't tried it before and hoped it would keep the bloody thing from magically teleporting itself to him. He didn't like the stuff that seemed to happen when it did.

If it worked, maybe he could get a removable chain instead of a string so he could still have it when he wanted.

No hesitation.  
Just do it.

_snip_

The string fell to the floor. "Well that wasn't so bad, was it." He picked up the string and tied it to the arm of a chair on the other side of the room.

"Well, see you not later you bloody evil wanker!" Bakura said with a smile and left.

* * *

Bakura walked the streets of Domino City looking for where Yugi and his friends might be hanging out on a day like today. They might be hanging at home or maybe playing a game somewhere. Knowing Yugi, he was playing a game regardless.

He decided to head for the game shop to see if anyone was there.

Suddenly, he heard a little _meow_ coming from behind him. He turned around and saw a white fluffy kitten following him. It looked at him with big brown adorable eyes.

He stopped and smiled. "Oh hello there, kitty cat. Are you following me?" The kitten rubbed its head against his leg in an adorable manner. Bakura picked it up. "Aw, you cute thing? Why are you out here by yourself?" _ I hope he isn't a stray._

"_Mew_."

"You can keep following me if you want. But I don't know if pets are allowed in Yugi's grandpa's shop. Well it will be nice to have a companion anyway." _He's so adorable. And it was getting kind of lonely walking by myself._ "Ok then, come on let's go." He set the small white kitten down and kept walking. It walked a little faster to keep up with him and the two continued on to the game shop.

* * *

A few minutes later, he and the kitten had reached a spot that was three blocks away from Yugi's place.

"_Mew_." The kitty stopped walking and had fallen a bit behind.

Bakura noticed and also stopped. "What is it?"

The little kitten looked away from Bakura in the direction they had just come from. Then he said gave a little _mew_ again and just continued walking.

"Hm." _Maybe he just smelled food or something._ They both continued walking

A minute later, Bakura heard a voice behind him call his name.

"Bakura! Hey Bakura!"

"Huh?" Bakura looked behind him and saw a man staring at him. He was wearing a lavender top that was showing of his midriff and had wierd golden bracelets on his arms. He had whiteish spiky hair (not as spiky as Bakura's, but it looked wierd enough). He was holding some sort of rod that had the same design as his own Millenium Ring on it.

And to Bakura, he looked pretty bloody effeminate.

"Hey Bakura, why are you following yourself? Ahahahahahaaaa!"

"What?" The only thing that was following him was the kitten. And unless this person was making fun of his hair and comparing it to a cat's, then he had no idea what this person meant by "following himself".

"Ahaha... You know I'm just joking. Anyway where are you heading?"

"I'm sorry, but who are you?"

* * *

**Dun dun DUUUUUUUNNNNNNN!**

**Like the cliffhanger? I do hahaha *makes Marik-like laugh***

**Anyway I'm just trying to take up space in the EndingAN cuz I don't know what to do in two chapters from now and I'm kind of bored. Maybe I should just shut up now and move on with this.**

**Anyway I might be updating this tomorow. Maybe. But this was an on-a-whim idea so I might run out of ideas by the third chapter. But I'm hanging in there.**

**So I guess I'll see you tomorow then.**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	2. 2: So we meet again, for the first time

**Hey guys, it's me again.**

**So I'm picking up where we left off. **

**A quick recap: Bakura decided to go to Yugi's place to hang out with him. Along the way, a kitten starts following him. Then Marik shows up and asks where he's going. Bakura doesn't recognize Marik.**

**So now what's gonna happen? Dun DUN DUUNNNN~!**

**If you want the vid I was watching when I came up with this, then I will put the link at the end of the chapter. Honestly, (even though I haven't seen many of them) I believe it is the best thiefshipping video on YouTube.**

**Now on with the story.**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Marik looked at Bakura with utter shock. "Wha-wha- Bakura what the hell are you talking about? Stop messing around. Seriously, where are you going? Are you going to Yugi's house? Are you considering carrying out my evil sock-arranging plan after all?" The man walked up to Bakura and put an arm around him in a friendly way. "I thought you said my plan was rubbish."

"That _is_ rubbish," Bakura said while squirming out from under the arm. "What kind of evil plan involves rearranging someone's sock drawer?"

"Oh, so you still hate it, huh? It figures. So seriously, where are you going?"

Bakura was confused as to why this unfamiliar person was talking to him like they knew each other. "Well if you must know, strange person, I am going to my friend Yugi's house. Now if you'll excuse me..." Bakura tried to continue walking.

Marik stepped in front of him. "Since when are you a legitimate friend of his? Don't you hate him?"

"Hate him? Why would I hate my friend?"

_Hm._ Marik was starting to think that maybe something was really wrong with Bakura and he wasn't just messing with him. "Bakura are you okay? Are you sick or something? You seem... Different."

"I'm perfectly fine now will you please leave me alone!" Bakura tried once again to escape from this person.

"What? Bakura what has gotten into you? Come on tell me!" He grabbed Bakura's arm to stop him from moving.

"Get the bloody hell off of me you bloody wanker!"

When Marik heard Bakura say that, he noticed that his British accent was completely off. He had noticed that Bakura had sounded a little different, but he just assumed that Bakura had a cold or was maybe whispering or something like that. But now that he had heard him loud and clear in such an accented voice, he realized that something wasn't wrong with Bakura's voice; Bakura had the wrong voice altogether!

_Either Bakura is trying to voice act or something happened to Bakura's real voice. I wonder if..._

Marik went directly in front of Bakura and grabbed his shoulders so they were directly face-to-face. He looked into Bakura's eyes. Somehow, they seemed different from before. Much less evil and much more normal. His face looked a bit nicer too. Which seemed creepy. Marik looked up at his hair. It looked a shade of white lighter than normal, was a bit more relaxed and less fluffy, and it seemed like it was missing a few fluffs.

"Bakura, what the [EFF!] happened to you? Why are you so different? Did something happen on the way home from the last council meeting?"

"Council meeting? What the bloody hell are you talking about? Did I do something yesterday with you that I don't know about?"

Somehow, as they had been talking, the had managed to move one block closer to Yugi's house. Bakura felt that if this guy tried anything on him, he would just run inside the game shop. _Buggar, I hope that it's open! Maybe I regret not bringing my gaydar with me. Maybe this guy is gay and is trying to seduce me or something. He _does_ look rather effeminate._

Marik was still trying to figure out why Bakura was acting so strange and looked so different. He still looked like himself and wore the clothes he usually does. Maybe this wasn't Bakura at all and was just a _really_ good cosplayer of him. One way to find out...

"Bakura do you still have your 'Change of Heart' card?" Cosplayers don't usually carry around a dueling deck without a duel disc on them. And Bakura didn't have one on him.

Bakura looked surprised. "Why yes, how did you know?" He took out his deck and pulled out the card the man had mentioned from the top. "Are you stalking me or something?"

This was Bakura alright, but he always knew Bakura to have the "Change of Heart" on the _bottom_ of his deck for safety reasons. Just what was going on here?

Another test, just to be safe. "Um, Bakura."

"What the bloody hell do you want from me?"

Okay, he still speaks like himself, for the most part. It was just the voice. "Melvin left a message for you that said he wants to play a Shadow Game with you."

"A Shadow Game? No bloody way! And who the hell is Melvin?"

Bakura looked more surprised than terrified. But Marik now knew that this _was_ Bakura, something was just wrong with him. "Bakura, what the [EFF!] has happened to you? Where is the Bakura I knew and loved?" Marik grabbed his shoulders and started shaking him.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?" He escaped from the man's grasp. He ran away shouting, "Help me! This gay wanker is trying to molest me! Someone help!"

The kitten that had been following him went up to Marik and scratched him on the leg and then ran after Bakura again.

"Gah! Stupid cat!" Then he looked around. Several people were staring at him. "What the hell are you people looking at?"

He held up his Millennium Rod. "All of you here that are named Steve, I command you to forget everything you just saw and be on your way!"

The Millennium Rod glowed a bit, and about three guys and a girl looked blankly at him and walked away. _I wonder if Pegasus knows that girl,_ he thought and walked away himself, wondering what the frig was going on here.

* * *

**Lol what do you think so far? I literally wrote this just this morning on my iPod so bear with me if it isn't as awesome as you expect. **

**And an edit from the last chapter, I said that thiefshipping is Marik/Yami Bakura. It's not. Apparently it is any shipping involving Ryou Bakura or Yami Bakura and Marik or Melvin. But as I said, I haven't seen/read/heard any situation involving Marik and Ryou face-to-face so that's where this idea came from.**

**If you are wondering why the summary says "RatedK+ for now.", that's because the rating may go up to T because of... um... er...**

**Oh!**

**Language!**

**Yeah, that's it. The rating may go up for _LANGUAGE_. Ahehehe... Erm right...**

**So anyway, I actually thought of a plot for the next chapter so I may be updating it today. As a quick preview, I'm just gonna say that it takes place at the game shop with Yugi. If you haven't already noticed, this is mostly based off of the Abridged series, but there is some of the original personalities there. **

**I don't know what I'll be doing for chapter 4 yet, but I'm (mentally) working on it.**

**The link I promised you can be found on my profile. I labeled it as "The best theifshipping video on YouTube". It would be too much trouble to put it here and I don't think I'm allowed to anyway.**

**Ok see you laters!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	3. 3: A Meeting With Friends

**Hey guys *uses slenderman voice*~! Lol jk.**

**Notice how I added LK's [EFF!] soundeffect for Marik? You like? Tee hee heee.**

**Anyway I'm back and we are catching up with Bakura.**

**A quick recap: Bakura wakes up one morning and decides to go hang out with Yugi and his friends. On the way to the game shop, Marik finds him. Bakura doesn't recognize him. Marik knows that it's Bakura, but notices his voice and appearance have changed. Marik tries to figure out what happened to Bakura by asking him wierd questions and mentioning Melvin. Which doesn't do much. Bakura gets freaked out by the unfamiliar person and runs away to the game shop.**

**So I was wondering about the whole thifshipping thing and I am actually quite unfamiliar with anything thiefshipping that isn't Yami Bakura/Marik, so I really didn't consider the fact that people HAVE paired Ryou Bakura and Marik Ishtar already probably. But as far as I have seen in the show so far, there hasn't been any of that so I'm just gonna lamely cheer myself and say "YAY FOR (supposed) ORIGNIALITY!"**

**(BTW Just so you know, this takes place sometime in the week after the 4th council meeting (during which the sock drawer 'evil' scheme was mentioned)).**

**Anyway, on with the story.**

**ENJOY~! **

* * *

Bakura stopped just across the street from the game shop, out of breath. He looked behind him for the wierd person who had been bothering him. All that he saw were some normal-looking pedestrians and the kitten that was following him. But he didn't see that man anywhere.

"I hope we didn't make _too_ much of a scene," he said to the kitty. "That would be a bit embarrassing." But he didn't want to take any chances. When the light changed, he ran across the street to the game shop.

Stopping briefly in front of the door, he noticed that the sign said "Open" and he felt relief rush over him as he entered the shop. The kitten followed.

No one was inside except for Yugi's grandfather who was sweeping behind the counter. When he heard the bell ring, he looked up. "Oh, hello, Bakura. are you here for Yugi?"

"Oh hi. Um... yes I am. Is he here at the moment?" he said frantically.

"No actually, he's out with the others. They should be back in a few minutes."

"Oh, that's a shame."

"Are you okay? You seem to be out of breath. Were you running or something?"

Bakura noticed that he _was_ still panting a bit. "Um... well... yes I was actually."

"Did something happen?"

"Yes, I was being harassed by this wierd stranger person who kept acting like he knew me. I hope he didn't follow me."

"Well it's good you got away. Well, don't just stand there. Why don't you make yourself at home? Relax. Don't worry about it."

"Thanks." They both moved into the house. Bakura sat on the couch and wondered about that person again.

The kitty jumped up on the couch and started rubbing him again. Brought out of his thoughts, Bakura smiled at the kitty and started petting it. _So cute._ He forgot his worries.

Suddenly, he heard the bell of the shop door. He heard voices approaching from the hallway and turned around. The kitty jumped from his lap to the head of the couch.

"I told you they didn't have it." That sounded like Tea.

"Well it's not my fault that they ran out. I'm not psychic." That was Joey.

Tristan walked into the room and noticed that someone was on the couch. "Hey look, Bakura is here," he said as he picked up the kitten.

"Tristan, that's a cat. _That's_ Bakura, you idiot," Joey said as he pointed to Bakura.

"Hey, Bakura," Yugi said as he entered the room. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was bored so I came over to see if you wanted to hang out. Where did you guys come from just now?"

"From the mall," Tea replied. "Joey said that a certain store had a video game we had been looking to buy for a while but it turns out," she turned to Joey, "they were ALL SOLD OUT!"

"Relax Tay, I said I didn't know! Shut up already!"

"Calm down both of you!" Yugi said. "Now Bakura, what happened to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Grandpa said you were chased by some creeper guy. Is everything okay?"

"_Why is the old man getting in my business_?" Bakura muttered. "Well obviously I'm fine as you can see, but it was still wierd." The kitten jumped on his head. "Oh and before that happened, this kitten decided to start following me."

"What kitten?" asked Yugi.

"This one," Bakura said as he pointed to the kitten that was being nice and comfy in his hair.

"I don't see anything," said Joey.

"What is wrong with you people? It's right here." He took the kitty off of his head and showed it to them. He then suddenly realized that the kitten had the same hair color and shade as he did. _That explains the wierd guy's comment and Tristan mistaking it for me. But then again, Tristan is an idiot._

"Aw how cute!" exclaimed Tea. She pet the kitty.

_Oh, how I wish I was that cat right now_, thought Yugi.

"Hey Bakura," Joey said. "What did this strange man look like?"

Bakura thought back to that time on the street. "Well he had whitish hair, and he looked kinda Egyptian. And he had on this purple shirt that was showing off his midriff. And he was talking to me like he knew me or something. And he looked extremely effeminate." Then he remembered something that might be important. "Oh and Yugi, he was holding this wierd-looking rod that had the same symbol as our Millenium items on it."

"Egyptian, midriff, girly looking, and Millenium Rod," Yugi mumbled. "Yup sounds like Marik."

"Who?" Bakura asked.

"Hey! Speaking of Millenium items," said Tristan, "do you have your evil creepy ring with you?"

"Hm?" Bakura looked down. He felt around his neck and checked his shirt. He felt nothing. "Nope!" he said gleefully. "Not here!"

"Really? Where is it?" asked Yugi.

"At home. I nailed the buggering thing to the wall."

"What?"

"And I cut the string."

"What? What about your gaydar? Don't you need that thing or something? To locate gay people?"

"It's not really necessary, but it helps. Besides, the thing is evil and I don't really need it. I don't want to locate gay people, I just want to be able to detect them."

"You don't?" asked Tea. "But why wouldn't a gay person like you not want to find gay people?"

_Ugh!_ "I told you bloody wankers the millionth time already! I'm not gay, I'm just British! Stop saying that!"

"Well doesn't it just randomly come back like magic or something?" noted Tea.

"Yes, I threw it out a window and at the end of the episode it just came back," said Tristan.

"Well yes that is true but I cut the string. It can't really come back to me if it doesn't have something to hang on." He looked at Yugi. "Can it?"

"I don't know. It's _your_ ring. Wouldn't _you_ know?"

"No. Haven't tried it yet. This morning was the first time. So far it's working, because I haven't really done anything evil that I may have forgotten about today yet. And it isn't here so I assume it didn't come back yet."

"Hey, maybe it's the kitten! It could be an evil-repelling cat!" Tristan said. He moved directly in front of Bakura. "Are you an evil-repelling kitty?"

"No, I'm Bakura. _That's_ the kitten you idiot." Bakura pointed to the kitten which Tea was still petting and Yugi was looking at with jealousy.

"Anyway what were we talking about before?" asked Joey.

"Something about a guy named...Marik I think?" said Bakura.

"Yeah that's right," Tea said. "Haven't you seen him before? I remembered seeing you two together when you were pretending to have Wanker's Cramp so Marik could kidnap me and Joey and change our names to Steve to make us part of his Steve Army."

"Tea, did we ever un-change our names?"

"What? When was this? I've never gotten Wanker's Cramp in my life. Came bloody close to it though."

"Yeah, I remember," Joey said. "It was during the Battle City Tournament. Tristan was on his way the hospital to pick up my sister, Yugi was looking for us, and Yugi's grandpa took you to the hospital for medical help."

"Guys you are all idiots. That never happened to me. I'm pretty sure I would remember getting such a deadly disease. And why would that guy be there?"

"Because apparently he was holding you. I remember that day clearly because he was so hot and I was so jealous of you," Tea said.

"I hate Marik," muttered Yugi.

"Look guys, I'm pretty sure I haven't seen him before, so could you please stop bothering me about it. Can't we just stop talking about it and do something fun?"

"Like what?" asked Yugi. "Play a card game?"

"Isn't there something you people like to do besides play children's card games?"

"Something _besides_ card games? Are you out of your mind?"

* * *

**Transition~! Because I have nothing better to put here.**

* * *

_*walks in*_  
_*looks around*_  
_*looks at you people*_  
_Hello everyone. I would tell you who I am but it's none of your business and I'm not getting paid to introduce myself. Actually I don't know if I'm getting paid at all._  
_So, apparently, the writer of this fanfic actually _did_ have a good idea on how to finnish this chapter. In fact, she already had the whole chapter fully planned. Unfortunately, she forgot how it was supposed to end. She apparently went to sleep after stopping and didn't bother to write her idea down so she wouldn't forget it the next day. So I'm here to say that due to her idiocy, the chapter shall end here and you will have to wait untill she makes the next chapter. _  
_If you care about this thing, which I don't, then maybe you should review to give her an idea. Because I believe maybe you people have a better idea. I'm not liking how its been going so far. So since I'm stuck here, I'll just stay here and be bored out of my mind while you people read and review.  
_ _Also, don't complain about me. Until I actually make an appearance I'll just be here adding my input into the pre-Ending Author's Note. Because I'm bored. And because I apparently can't move for a few chapters all because of the bloody plot._  
_So goodbye.  
*walks out*  
*from off-screen* Does anyone know if I'm getting paid for saying that?_

* * *

**HAHA LOLOLOL. **

**You may not have noticed, but I am mixing a bit of the original and the abridged. Examples of the original: Yugi and his friends are friends with Bakura and remember him, Joey is original Joey (he doesn't say "nyeh" or "Brooklyn rage"), and Yugi's grandpa isn't a crazy weirdo that says random old people crap. And then we have everything else abridged. Because LK is superior to 4K (*hopes she doesn't get sued*).**

**Sorry about the chapter and stuff. I got a bit of brain fart while trying to finish it and I stopped halfway through cuz it was late. The next day, I almost couldn't continue cuz I forgot what I was going to write.**

**Anyway if I can think of an idea for what should happen next chapter, or if someone wants to give me a suggestion, then I will write it.**

**But for now I got nothing. Sorry.**

**And now I am bored and rambling nonsense.**

**Anyway see you next chapter maybe.**

**BYEEEEE~!**


	4. 4: Four Guys on a Roof

**Hello again everyone!**

**I am really starting to think that this was a bad idea. I had a good first 3 (or maybe 2?) chapters but now my mind is drawing some blanks here. As I said, on the day I planned to post chapter 3, which was two days ago, I really did have the whole chapter planned out. But I left it for today, but then forgot how it was supposed to end. So now I'm like *facepalm* and stuff so I'm going to attempt to write chapter 4. I waited a while so I could get reviews for chapter 3, but I'm going to do this now before I forget what I wanted to happen.**

**Halfway through the making of this chapter, I realized that it would be a long one and figured out how to finish it and I now have a vague idea on what to do in the next one.  
**_No thanks to all of you.  
_**So yeah, but unless you want me to draw a blank again, please R&R and stuff cuz I don't want the idea to be _too_ vague anymore.**

**A quick recap: On the way to Yugi's house, he meets a kitten that looks like him and it decides to follow him. Bakura runs into Marik, but doesn't recognize him. As Marik tries to figure out why Bakura seems to have forgotten stuff and is different from how he usually is, Bakura is freaked out and runs to the game shop. He tells Yugi and the others about the strange man, and Yugi realizes it was Marik. Bakura isn't familiar with the name, even though he apparently pretended to help Bakura who pretended to have Wanker's Cramp once. They decide to push the matter aside and hang out.**

**And now let the strangeness continue!**

**ENJOY~! *crossed fingers***

* * *

"Well that was fun, wasn't it?" Bakura said.

"Yes," agreed Yugi. "Surprisingly, that was a fun game even though it wasn't Duel Monsters."

"Even though you participated the least, Yug?" Joey commented.

"Well, now what?" asked Tristan.

The four of them were hanging out on the school roof, even though the school wasn't open and there was no way they could have possibly gotten up there. For some reason, Yugi and the others like to hang out up there for no reason when they have nothing else to do. Tea had already left because she still had to work at that fatty-crappy burger place.

"I guess we could get down from the roof of this building," Bakura suggested.

"What?" Yugi exclaimed. "On screen? But won't that eliminate the mystery of it for the viewers?"

"Well it would be better than being bored after doing something not-boring. Besides, I feel like doing something daring and crazy. Like revealing to the readers exactly how we get on and off the roof."

"Boy, you British people sure like spoiling stuff, don't you?" Joey said

"No! It's just that I never get to do anything interesting! Or dangerous."

"So I guess trying to kill us several times isn't interesting enough for you?" Yugi asked.

"I already told you guys, I don't remember trying to kill you. Or anyone. And I'm not evil. Tristan, you believe me, right?"

"Yup. It's that damn ring thing. It's pure evil. Good thing you got rid of it, right?"

"Yup, it's still gone. Still at home. Maybe it worked."

"Or maybe the evil spirit inside it just doesn't feel like doing anything today," said Yugi.

"Are you bloody kidding me?! If I was bored enough to ask if you guys would let me hang out with you, then imagine how bored HE must feel."

"Wait a minute," said Joey. "You're saying you only came over cuz you were _bored_?"

"Yup."

"What, we aren't that bad."

"You aren't, it's just that I totally could have done something else besides hanging out with you tossers but I didn't think of anything else."

"You and your stupid British accent!" Joey yelled at Bakura.

"You and your stupid Brooklyn accent!" Bakura yelled back.

Bakura and Joey argue a lot. This is either because they are the most distant friends in the group, or the because of fact that their accents don't like each other.

"Guys calm down!" Yugi exclaimed. "Stop arguing about accents. And if anyone has a wierd accent, it's Yami. For some reason it sounds like a combination of Egyptian and British. Which makes no sense."

"And the weirdest thing of all is that we are all in Japan," said Tristan. "For some reason, Yugi doesn't have a Chinese accent even though he is a panda."

The mention of the spirit in the Millenium Puzzle gave Bakura and idea. "Hey, Yugi?"

"Yeah?"

"Um, don't take this the wrong way, but do you thing I could hold your Millenium Puzzle for approximately thirty seconds?"

"What the hell? No. Why would I trust you with it? Who even _asks_ something like that? And why so time-specific? Come to think of it, why would I take that the wrong way?"

"Oh come on, Yugi," Bakura pleaded. "It's not like I'm going to steal it or anything. You can even time me if you want. I just want to test something."

"Oh that has to be the most cliché 'I'm not a villain' line ever," Yugi said.

"Please? I'm not evil. I told you I don't have my evil ring with me so it should be fine."

Yugi was still sceptical, but figured that Yami would kick Bakura's ass if he tried anything. And by "kick his ass" he meant "duel the limey crap outta him". "Okay fine, but your thirty seconds starts the second you touch it."

Yugi removed the puzzle from around his neck and held it out to Bakura. "Aaand... Your time starts..." he let go. "Now."

Bakura held on to the puzzle for about ten seconds and nothing happened. He was pleasantly surprised, because the last time he had his hands on the Millenium Puzzle, he apparently went all evil and stuff and tried to steal it. He felt around his neck again for his ring.

Nothing.

"Guys I think this is working."

"What's working?"

"Shut up, Tristan."

Only five seconds left. Bakura was so happy that nailing the Millenium Ring to the wall had been successful.

Then the five seconds were over and Yugi snatched the puzzle back. "Ok that's enough," he put the puzzle back around his neck. Then his appearance changed for a brief second. "_Don't touch my puzzle again you limey fruitcake or I will duel your British ass into next season_!" Then he changed back.

Yugi looked down at the puzzle and said, "Yami! What did I say about those random outbursts against my will? Bad Pharaoh!" _Shut up, Yugi_, Yami said to him in his head.

"What was the point of that Bakura?" Joey asked him.

"I wanted to see if the evil person in my Millenium Ring would try to take over if I was that close to Yugi's puzzle," Bakura explained. "Usually he would because he's evil like that, but since he didn't that means that my nailing it to the wall worked."

"Well then I guess that means you'll be doing that from now on, right?" asked Yugi.

"No, of course not!" Bakura exclaimed. "Despite the evilness, I actually _do_ like that ring. It was a gift from my father, and it does have my gaydar in it. Not like I cam take it out or something."

"Come on, Bakura," Joey said. "I'm pretty sure you can find other gay guys without some fancy radar thing."

"I told you, I don't _want_ to find gay people. I just want to be warned when they are near me. I told you a million times you bloody, buggering wanker that I am _NOT_ gay, I am _BRITISH_! How many bloody times do I have to bloody tell you before you bloody leave me alone about it?!" Bakura stopped talking and realized that he was panting and had shouted. The other three guys were looking at him with shocked expressions. "Uh... Sorry," he apologized meekly.

Joey looked absolutely speechless.

"Holy **** on a **** sandwich with **** on top! The cat just yelled at the dog!"

"I am not a freaking dog you idiot!" Joey yelled at Tristan at the same time Bakura said, "I am not a bloody cat you git face!"

"Anyway," Bakura said, "Let's get off this roof, shall we?"

"Bakura," Yugi warned. "The viewers? They'll see us."

"Oh right."

"Don't worry," Joey reassured. "I brought my iPod."

"What good will that do?" asked Yugi.

"Since Yu-Gi-Oh! is still technically owned by 4Kids, even though this is only a fanfic, if I play violent fighting videos on it, it will have to be off screen, meaning the viewers won't read about it."

"Great idea, Joey," Yugi praised. "Okay then, let's do it."

* * *

**Transition~.**

* * *

About five minutes later, the four of them were safely on the ground outside of the school.

"Ah," Tristan said. "Nothing like a good _*convenient truck passes noisily by*_ a school building in the afternoon."

"Yes," agreed Bakura. "Well it's getting rather late. I guess we should all go home now. I'll see you guys tomorrow maybe?"

"Maybe," Joey said.

"Bye guys!" Bakura said as he began to walk home.

"Bye!" Tristan called.

"Make it home safely!" Yugi shouted.

"Thanks! You too!" Bakura called behind him. He reached up to the top of his hair and picked up the white kitten that had been napping there the whole time.

At his touch, the kitty woke up. It looked at him with adorable, sleepy brown eyes. As Bakura looked at them, he realized something.

"Wow, he really does look like me. Even the eye color." _Must be why he looks so adorable_, he thought.

* * *

**Transition~.**

* * *

Bakura walked home, adorable kitten napping in his arms, thinking cheerfully about all that had gone right today. He had managed to find a way to keep his Millenium Ring's evil spirit away from him, he had been able to hang out with Yugi and the others like a normal person for once, and he had found a kitty cat. Although he had run into a wierd person that morning, he was pleased that he hadn't run into him again.

Up ahead, he saw a familiar person leaning against a wall and looking at him.  
He was wearing a familiar-looking purple shirt. And was holding the Millenium Rod.

"Oh bugger, I thought too soon."

* * *

_Well finally, you get back to the main plot of the story after two useless chapters. I was wondering why we were talking about all this unrelated bullshit that no one even cares about._  
_And why does he always come in or leave at the_ end_ of a chapter?_  
_Whatever._  
_Now that we've gotten back on track, maybe something _interesting_ can happen._  
_This girl really is a terrible fanfic writer, isn't she?_  
_Hmm..._  
_Maybe I can fix that..._

* * *

**So this turned out a lot better than I thought it would. But that's probably because I didn't really have any thoughts for this chapter besides the last part because I didn't really plan this, I just made it up as I went along. I guess the stuff with Yugi and the others is just fillers for the actual plot.**

**But now that we are back on track and back to our main characters (*gasp* Ryou Bakura as a main character?! What is this madness?!(lol jk)), maybe things can actually get interesting.**

**Oh and by the way, remember a few chapters ago when I said that I would change the rating because of language, but I said it reeeealy suspiciously? Well it turns out that I really _did_ change the ratings because of language!**

**Erm... Not that I had another reason that I would have to change the ratings for... Ahehehehe... *suspiciously looks at the title***

**Erm. Anyway, see you next chapter then!**

**BYEEEE~!**


	5. 5: Bakura?

**HAI~!**

**I'm back and ready to roll!**

**But first I would like to mention something. It seems like someone is hacking into my stories. Not my account, just the stories themselves. Well actually, it's only this one. I don't know who it is, or how they are doing it, or even what they are saying in the hacks, but I know that someone is doing it. If you are reading this, then bloody stop it!**

**Ok now that that's over with.**

**A quick recap: Bakura and his cat look-alike run into Marik, who he doesn't recognize. While Marik tries to figure out what is wrong with Bakura and his memory, Bakura gets freaked out and runs to the game shop. He mentions this ordeal to Yugi and the others, who do know Marik. Bakura decides to brush away the subject for now and spends some time with Yugi, Tristan, and Joey. Bakura tests to see if he has successfully ditched the Millenium Puzzle and then heads home. On the way, he sees Marik again.**

**Ok, so I started this chapter on my iPod at approximately 11:40 PM so bear with me if it seems a little off or not-flowy because I may have to stop halfway through to sleep (I'm human you know) and might forget, yet again, how I had planned to end the chapter.**

**At the moment, I have a few minor events that will happen, but no idea how they will fit together. So I will make it up as I go along.**

**Also don't give me any "But why doesn't Marik know about Ryou?" crap. That is why this is being written and that is also because I haven't seen them FTF before so just shut the [EFF!] up. Also I wonder what would happen if**

_Spoiler tag! (Not really a spoiler tag; I'm just going to call it that) Not letting you read this. Erm, not that it embarrasses me or anything...  
Erm...  
Um...  
On with the story?_

**Don't hate me for this.**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Bakura looked at the creepy effeminite-looking man who was apparently named Marik. "What the bugger do you want from me?" he asked as he approached him. The kitty in his arms hissed at Marik.

"Aw, does da wittle Bakuwa Jr. not wike Mawik? Haha. You know, Bakura, it really does look like you!"

"Yes, I know that. Tristan wouldn't shut up about it all day."

"So you really _did_ go to Yugi's. Did you rearrange his sock drawer like I asked?"

"Why do you think I know you or something?" Bakura asked. "Why do you care so much about talking to me? Now will you leave me alone already?! Please I just want to go home!"

"Okay that does it!" Marik said. He'd had enough of Bakura's screwed up memory and strange appearance. Time to get to the bottom of it. "Bakura something is horribly wrong with you. You seem to have forgotten me and everything. Your hair is all wierd, you voice is all wrong, and your eyes are different and stuff. Everything about you has literally changed. What the [EFF!] is going on with you today?!"

"Um..." Bakura said. "Is your name Marik by any chance?" He didn't want to keep referring to him as "that guy" or something like that.

"Why yes, Bakura, it is!" Marik exclaimed cheerfully. "See, you _do_ remember! We just have to jog your memory, that's all. Remember the time I prank called the Kedah place?"

"No."

"Dammit!"

"Well if you don't mind, Marik, I'll be heading home now..."

"Wait, please!" he said desperately as he moved in front of Bakura.

"What the bloody hell do you bloody want from me?!"

"I-" Suddenly, Marik looked down at Bakura's shirt. Instead of seeing the Millenium Ring that was usually there, he saw nothing. "Bakura, what happened to the Millenium Ring?"

"What?"

"Your Millenium Ring! Where is it? You never have it off!"

"How do _you_ know about that?"

"Because you're always wearing it when we hang out. Also, I noticed it the first time we met. Obviously I would know about it."

"But I didn't have it on this morning."

Marik was once again shocked that Bakura seemed to remember absolutely nothing of him. Then he realized... _Yes, the Millenium Ring! Bakura is _always _wearing it when I see him! Maybe the fact that he isn't wearing it is the reason why he's so different._ "Bakura why don't you have it with you?"

"UGH!" Bakura had had enough of this. He was so irritated, he decided to go along with Marik's questions. "I left it at home. Where I am trying to go now. The place you won't let me go."

"Where at home?"

"Nailed to a wall."

"What?! Why the frig would you nail it to a frigging wall?"

"Because it's evil and was always teleporting to me and making me do evil things that I don't remember in the morning. Like try to kill Yugi and his friends. And steal his puzzle. And also-" *_mental gasp_!* _Could it be that I am hanging out with this guy while the evil me is controlling my body? That _would _explain a lot. Like the tattoo on my bum that says "shipping". Seriously, I don't know how I got it._

Meanwhile, Marik was having similarish thoughts. Emphasis on the ISH. _An evil Ring making him try to kill Yugi Mutou and steal his Millenium puzzle? That sounds a lot like the Bakura I know. Maybe this person_ is_ Bakura, just the non-evil, non-gay, overly British version of him that doesn't know me and my sexiness. Wait a minute did I seriously just think that out loud? Um, nevermind. Hehehe, never_MIND_. That's funny! Because I'm thinking in my _MIND_ right now ahahahahaha!_

"So." "So."

"Um, you first," offered Bakura.

"Yes, I shall go first," Marik said. "First off, have you ever played a Shadow Game? You seemed to know what I was talking about when I mentioned it this morning. Even though you didn't know who Melvin is." As a side note he added, "Oh by the way, the whole 'note for you' thing was a lie to see if you'd react."

"Well now that you mention it, I haven't played many of those. Only like about two or three. Yugi said that he's played quite a lot of them. But I have barely gone to the Shadow Realm for one. Well there was this one time when the evil me tried to take Yugi's Puzzle for the first time when we were in Duelist Kingdom and then he put our souls into our favorite cards." Bakura always hated that the most. How this evil guy tried to manipulate his soul. Bad enough he manipulated his body, but his soul too?

"Yes, I heard about that."

"Really? Well did you hear about how I almost had to turn one my friends against the others? But I didn't. I turned one of _his_ monsters against himself and then Yugi put my soul back where I belong, in my body." _Wait a minute why am I telling this Marik guy all of my secrets?_ Bakura wondered. _Why am I trusting him with my past experiences? He's such a bloody weirdo. Wait a minute he's closing his eyes while listening. Now's my chance to escape._

Marik had his eyes closed trying to process Bakura's story. This "evil" spirit that was supposedly in this kid's Millenium Ring really _did_ act exactly like the Bakura he knew. Now the question was, why didn't the Ring just magically teleport to this guy, like it seemed to usually do, when he saw Marik? Surely the Bakura _he_ knew would want to talk to him and not let this punk and a few nails in the Ring slow him down.

'_Meow_.'

"Shut up you stupid cat I'm trying to escape quietly here!"

"Hey, not so fast. I have an important question for you."

Before he asked his final question, Marik asked Bakura one thing he had been wondering.

"Bakura?"

"Yes, um... Marik?"

"What's your name?"

"I'm pretty sure we have already established that my name is Bakura."

"Yes, yes, yes. I meant your _last_ name. What is it?"

_Finally, something this tosser _doesn't_ know._ "My name is Bakura Ryou."

* * *

**Transition~.**

* * *

Marik was frozen in shock. Bakura had always said something about a "host" and someone named "Ryou", but (because we all know that Marik is an idiot) he never once understood what he had meant. Now this "Ryou" guy who is apparently Bakura's "host" was standing right in front of him, while Bakura was stuck inside the Millenium Ring and nailed to a frigging wall!

_What sort of madness is this world coming to_?!

* * *

_Well now that Marik has finally wrapped his empty head around the situation, perhaps I can get something done for once in this bullsh*t of a fanfic.  
As for "Aquailita's" crappy fanfic writing, I now have the _perfect_ method on how to change this story around. Quite literally.  
All I need are some legal papers and to steal the Millenium Rod from Marik.  
Oh that's right I can't because I'm nailed to a bloody _WALL_!  
God I hate this girl, who is the idiot who introduced her to this website?  
*goes to Aquailita's profile*  
*reads names*  
Ah, so that's who. Well, TimeTheFinalFronteir, I guess we'll be having a little talk later, won't we? See you in the Shadow Realm, bitch._

* * *

**So that turned out better than I expected. Well actually I won't know how good it is untill people review and favorite and stuff.**

**A little bit of advertising here:  
** **1) For some reason, I have the urge to mention to you guys that TimeTheFinalFrontier _is_ my friend/colleague and she did introduce me to this site. She really is a life changer. Check out her profile! **  
**2) Check out some of my other fanfics! The AmeriBurger Chronicles 1 and A is a Hetalia RP with TTFF. Check it out! It isn't very popular though which is :'(**

**Anyway, I have to say that I feel happy that people HAVE reviewed and favorited, but still...**

**Whatever, you don't have to, it would just help.**

**So now, like I said before, things are getting interesting. **

**If you are wondering why the title is called "ThiefSlipping", it's for two reasons. One, it sounds like "Thiefshipping", but with an L instead of an H. Two, apparently I got an idea, around the time I was writing chapter 3, to somehow make one of them slip. Either literally, as in tripping, or figuratively, as in falling in the mind. But I still really have no idea what I meant by 'slipping'. I came up with it on a whim when I was uploading the first chapter to my documents. It was supposed to be more of a play on words than a meaningful title. So it's still kind of a mystery to me too.  
Also, one of my reviewers told me more about the Ryou Bakura/Marik Ishtar pairing. Apparently it's called "Angstshipping" and never officially happens (in other words, it's a fan-made pairing). I'm thinking about changing the title because of that. But maybe not.**

**Anyway, I guess I'll see you next chapter then?**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	6. 6: Confusion and Complication

**Hello again, it's me!**

**So anyway, again, like the idiot I am, I started this chapter with the feeling that I won't finish writing it all in one go.  
****But let's not worry about that now and just hope for the best.**

**This chapter will have a different mood than the previous ones. More sentimental-ish-ish.  
****Ish.  
****And also its more of a crack-drabble-fail than a chapter.**

**Also, I am still on the lookout for that hacker. Apparently, he or she has been adding inserts into my fanfics and I have no idea what they say, or why they are there, or where they are, but I want to know who is doing it! Come on! Fess up! Seriously this is really annoying! I can't even detect any hackers. Not that I even am trying to or have any hacker-detecting skills, but somehow I know something is up.  
Please confess?  
I will give you a Kuriboh (not winged) card and a Hetalia Mochi picture which is so adorable! And also a cookie!**

_I don't like Hetalia._

**Anyway!**

**A quick recap: After he and his kitty look-alike run away from Marik, Bakura hangs out with Yugi and his friends. He explains his experience to them, and learns Marik's name for what seems to be the first time. He tests to see if nailing the Millenium Ring to the wall worked and it had. Then, Bakura and his new kitty friend head home, but he bumps into Marik again. After talking for a while, Marik realizes that the Bakura he's talking to is actually the host person, "Ryou", for the Bakura he is familiar with.**

**So now, let the craziness continue! Nyehehehe*_Marik laugh_*! (  
BTW, this chapter has a little bit more Marik in it. Almost like Marik is getting his very own chapter. Yay.)**

_What?!_

**But now that I think about it, maybe not, I guess I will make it 1/2 and 1/2. I will see how it works out.**

_Ugh. *braces self for boredom and hell*_

**Oh and also, it just so happens that I was able to take the usual break I stupidly take, but this time it was cleverly planned. I actually stopped while I was writing this OpeningAN! So that means I should be able to write the actual chapter in one go.  
****Which I started yesterday and am posting today.**

**Anywayzez...**

**ENJOY~! *crosses fingers super tight***

* * *

Marik stood there still a little shocked. Then he snapped out of it, and focused on Bakura, erm... _Ryou_, again.

"So anyway, since you-" He stopped talking as soon as he realized that Bakura wasn't there. _Ryou. Friggin _RYOU_. I can't think of him as Bakura since he isn'__t. This is getting too confusing._

_Yes I'm finally escaping! I think._ As Marik had been frozen in place out of shock, Bakura had been walking away again. Thankfully, the kitten (which Bakura decided to name Kuriby) had remained silent this time. He wanted to ask why Marik was so shocked about his last name, but didn't really want to hear the answer, didn't care, and also wanted to go home.

"Wha- Hey! How rude!"

_Dammit._ "Go away!" he shouted. Feeling surprisingly desperate, Bakura took a random card out of his deck and attempted to throw it at Marik frisbee-style, like he had seen either Kaiba or Yugi (he couldn't remember which) do once.

Surprisingly, it worked.

* * *

_So he did something _right_ for once.  
_ _Good job.  
Stupid hikari..._

* * *

The card flew over to Marik like a boomerang-arrow-frisbee thing and struck the Millenium Rod straight-on, causing it to fall out of Marik's hand.

"Frig! What the [EFF!] did you do that for?!" Marik yelled as he bent down to pick it up. As soon as he bent down, Bakura proceeded to run the rest of the way home.

The moment Bakura had thrown the card, Kuriby had jumped out of his arms and ran over to Marik. When the card had landed after hitting the Rod, he had picked it up for Bakura, scratched Marik again, and ran after him.

Just before that stupid cat had taken it, Marik had noticed which card it was. It was the Change of Heart.

* * *

So, Bakura Ryou had gone home, Marik was bored and still confused, and had been attacked twice by a [EFF!]ing kitten.

This day had been very crappy for him.

He didn't know what he was going to do now. He actually had planned on hanging out with Bakura that day, but obviously that didn't happen. And apparently, it wouldn't have happened anyway.

This "Ryou", this "host" Bakura had sometimes mentioned, Bakura had always spoke of him like a servant or slave or something. It seemed like Bakura had a strong hold on "Ryou". So why was Ryou able to keep Bakura, who was apparently stuck in the Ring and nailed to a wall in Ryou's room, away for a whole day? Surely he would have appeared when Marik showed up.

_But then again, what do I really know about what goes on between those two? _he thought. _Bakura told me _some_ stuff, but he didn't tell me much._

Since he was bored and stuff, and because it was getting late, Marik decided to go back to his hotel room. Somewhat conveniently, the hotel he was staying at was the same distance away from where Bakura lived as Bakura's apartment building was from Yugi's house. Well, that could be either convenient or just coincidental. But he didn't know who it was convenient for because the walk to Ryou's apartment had taken frigging forever.

* * *

On the way, Marik processed what had happened recently.

**~Flashback~**

_Two days ago..._

Bakura and Marik are at an airport which was somewhere in Egypt.

"Marik are you sure you want to go back with me? After all, you don't really have anything to do in Domino City. Or a place to stay. You should just stay here and plan the next meeting."

"Oh, come now, Bakura. You know you want me to go with you~! And I'm BORED here. Besides, someone has to carry out our evil plan. And I know you won't do it."

"Of course I won't! That plan is total rubbish. I'm pretty sure Yugi has other things to worry about besides a messy sock drawer."

"Whatever. I'll just stay at a hotel near you. I'm BORED! I'll just get some Steves to mess with people for fun."

"Is that all you ever do? Make 'evil' schemes that never work and aren't really evil, have fun with your Steves, and hang out with me? Come on, Marik. Don't you have a life or something?"

"You _are_ my life!"

"..."  
"What?"

"Erm, nothing. Hehe."

"Fine, you can go with me. But just don't embarrass yourself on the plane. Or me. Again. Unlike you, I actually have a reputation to uphold."  
*muttered too quiet for Marik to hear*  
"_Two actually_."

"I have a reputation too! A very _EVIL_ reputation!"

"_Suuurrre_. Just get your bloody ticket. And fast."

Marik holds up his ticket which he had gotten when Bakura wasn't looking. "Already did."

"Of course you did."

**~New flashback~**

The next day

Marik and Bakura are at the Japan (I think) airport

"So exactly where is this hotel you are staying at?"

Marik tells him the address.  
(*_doesnt think of address to put cuz i dont feel like it_*)

"Luckily for you, that happens to be not far from where my host lives."

"It's not luck; I obviously planned it."

"Of course you did."

"So maybe tomorrow morning, we meet up and thing of something evil and disturbing to do?"

"Hm... It depends. What _kind_ of disturbing?"

"Disturbing the general public. Disrupting the peace! Causing chaos for EVERYONE!"

"..." "We're going to play pranks at the mall again, aren't we?"

"Yes! It's diabolical, no?"

_Not really. But I guess it would be kinda fun to do some more pranking. Maybe it will keep Marik out of Yugi's drawers._  
Suddenly, Bakura has a funny vision of Marik in Yugi's room, looking for the sock drawer, but instead opening the underwear drawer.  
He pops that vision before he can finish experiencing it. "Okay, I guess we could do that. So we meet at the mall or your room?"

"We'll just both head to the mall and hope we run into each other on the way?"  
The mall was located closer to Marik's hotel than Bakura's place.

"How about no? I have somewhere else I plan on going in the morning. We'll do it in the afternoon I guess."

"Yes! We shall! Nyahahahaha!"  
He suddenly plans to follow Bakura to where he is going, which he suspects might be Yugi's house.

"Well, bye then."

"See you tomorrow!"

They go their separate ways.

**~Flashback end~**

* * *

_What a lazy filler for a story. That was the worst flashback I have ever read._  
Well _I_ think it was cute.  
_Shut up and get out of here!_  
*leaves insert*

* * *

Back in his hotel room, Marik tried to process everything.  
The events of today,  
The events since two days ago,  
The whole "Bakura and Ryou" thing,  
And his emotions.

He wasn't really sure how he felt about this, or if he felt anything at all.  
Maybe he felt a little sad because he hadn't hung out with Bakura like planned.  
Maybe he felt disappointed because he had seen Ryou instead.  
Maybe he felt stupid because he hadn't noticed the situation earlier.

Maybe he was just bored because he spent all day doing nothing.

Somehow, Marik felt that the Change of Heart card was Bakura's favorite for a reason.

He never really thought much about any of this stuff before.

"What the hell is going on here? And what am I going to do about it? Should I do something? Can I? Do I want to- Oh hey, the phone!"

Marik had glanced at the phone and suddenly got the idea to make some prank calls.

"Mwahaha! I shall prank the [EFF!] out of someone!"

* * *

_That was boring. When are we switching?_

* * *

**Transition~!**

* * *

_Finally!_

* * *

Back in his room, Bakura tried to proccess what had been going on. He had finally realized that this Marik guy must have been hanging out with the evil Bakura. He made a list of things about him

On that list was: Attend evil council meetings with Marik Get called a 'kitty' or some variations of those Know some guy named Melvin Play Shadow Games frequently

The whole idea of it made his head hurt, so he stopped thinking about it.

"Why can't I just have a normal life? Why does stuff like this have to happen to me?"

It was the reason why he liked Yugi. Besides the fact that he was good at Duel monsters, he felt like he related to Yugi because of their Millenium items. Back when Yami was a little darker than he was now (he knew about Yami longer than Yugi's other friends had), Yugi had experienced similar things that Bakura had experienced. The memory loss was the main similarity. But so was the Dark.

Yami was the Dark Light. Evil Bakura was the Dark Shadow.

Bakura envied Yugi for getting the _good_ ancient spirit.

"Honestly, this sucks," Bakura said out loud to Kuriby. He sighed as he lied down on his bed. "What should I do about it?" He wasn't referring to the Evil Bakura, he was referring to the whole Marik situation.

"Well, I suppose I could either just ignore him or let him stay."

If he let Marik stay near him, either he would have to get information out of him about Marik's relationship and experiences with him or just try to establish a new one, independent of the other him.

"Or..." he considered an option he didn't want to consider. "I could just let the other me hang out with him to avoid drama and confusion, and just deal with any consequences later..." He looked over at the Ring on the wall. It was still nailed in place. Bakura looked over at the chair on the other side of the room. The cut string was still tied firmly in place.

_Well I'm assuming _that_ plan is still working_, he thought.

*_Yawn_*

He was tired. Bakura changed out of his clothes and into his pajamas.

Yanwing again, he looked over at Kuriby. "Good night," he said and fell asleep.

'Meow.'

The little white kitten fell asleep, on top of the card which he forgot to give back.

* * *

_Well, that was surprisingly _not_ a terrible ending. But I thought this chapter would turn out much better than it did.  
Oh wait, no I didn't.  
*laughs*  
Anyway, could you people _please_ review and save us all the torture of more horrible chapters? Aquailita doesn't have any better ideas and I'm sure she won't think of any good ones any time soon.  
Also does someone know if I'm getting paid to do this? This and my Pre-EngingAN insert in Chapter 3 were official ones, and I would like to know if I'm here for a reason. I would shut this down if I could, because it's so boring and terrible, but I can't.  
_I think it's rather nice. You just don't know how to appreciate it. And you can't force people to review...  
_I _told_ you to shut up and get out of _my_ insert! You have enough lines as it is! Leave or I'll _make_ you!_  
*sulks and leaves*

* * *

**I would like to say something that you guys may or may not have realized already. I have a habit of writing my chapters on my iPod in the morning and then emailing them to myself and editing them here. But I also have a habit of editing my OpeningAN's while in the middle of writing a chapter. It gets kinda confusing, I bet, so sorry about the weirdness of that.**

**Ugh! That was actually very difficult to do! I drew several blanks. Several times. *makes card joke* But I sent them to the graveyard with my Kuriboh. Because everyone knows that cuteness gains a 1000 attack bonus when it is up against mind blanks. *failed at making card joke***

**A few things I would like to point out:  
The reviews are NOT helping much. I am grateful for all of you that HAVE reviewed and stuff, but the thing is that pretty much from now on I will be depending on you guys for reviews.  
Also, I had a MAJOR error in the previous chapter. In the recap, I said that Bakura tested to see if he had ditched the Millenium _PUZZLE_ instead of saying the Millenium _RING_. Either you people didn't notice (meaning _you_ fail), or assumed it was intentional or that had I planned to fix it soon (meaning_ I_ fail). I have reread my chapters several times for errors and I didn't notice until just this morning, so I guess I fail.**

**Er, sorry about that. Just saying. If you don't want to read a crappy fanfic, then help me out, guys. Please?**

**Because I feel like this chapter turned out like TOTAL CRAPPY _CRAP_!**

_Someone has some anger issues. No wonder she has no fans._

**Hey! I saw that! This is the _ENDING_ Author's Note so I can see everything written here! Who are you?!**

_*runs away*_

**Dammit! I think I almost caught him (now I know it's a male). Oh well. Now he knows I'm watching him...  
I just have to lure him back. I hope he likes Hetalia and Mochi.**

_I don't._

***throws trading card at his face***

_*she misses*_

***wasn't able to see who he is***

**Damn it!**

**Anyway...**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEE~!**


	7. 7: A New Chain and A New Plan

**Hello again my friends!**

**So here I am again, on my iPod, attempting to start the next chapter. Unfortunately, I believe my last chapter was a bit of a fail. I'm sorry about that.**

**In other news, I haven't found the 'insert hacker' since he doesn't like Hetalia, Kuribohs, or cookies, I will have to think of another idea.**

**Oh! Speaking of ideas, I had a perfect idea for what to happen in one of the chapters! I know a certain SOMEONE will be pleased with it. So I had better write it down now, and then work on this chapter. But I had better do it fast before I forget what I planned for THIS chapter!**

_Which is absolutely nothing, I suppose._

**So, let's begin!  
*goes to write other chapter***

_I'd better do something before she forgets..._

***Comes back*  
** **YAY IM BACK! Now what was that idea again? **  
***looks* **  
**Oh it appears I have already started writing! That's good!**

**But I don't remember doing that...**

_*snickers*_

**Oh whatever...**

**Oh! I almost forgot!**

**A quick recap: After having tested the absence of the Millenium Ring and hanging out with Yugi and the others, Bakura and his new kitten, Kuriby, head home. On the way, Bakura bumps into Marik again, who finally figures out that the "Bakura" he's been talking to is actually Bakura's host, Ryou. Then, in a totally cracktastic chapter sequence, Bakura goes home and ponders his other self's relationship with Marik, Marik goes back to his hotel room and has two flashbacks, and Kuriby forgets to give Bakura back the card he threw at Marik to escape.**

**A note within the Author's Note: the hotels mentioned in this chapter are not real. Do not attempt to look up the hotels or try to get a room next toons of Marik's rooms because they don't exist. Ergo, you will be unsucessful.**

**Ok now...**

_*goes to look at other chapter* _  
_*finds nothing* _  
_Apparenty, she can't write the next chapter before she finishes this chapter... _  
_So here we go..._

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Bakura woke up at the same time he woke up the previous day.  
Speaking of yesterday...  
Memory check!

Good, no memory gaps.

He looked over at the Millenium Ring on the wall opposite from him. It was still firmly nailed in place. He then looked over at the string on the chair. Still cut and still tied.

Smiling happily, Bakura went to make breakfast for himself.

"_Mew._"

And Kuriby.

After breakfast, Bakura lounged in his room for a few minutes, wondering what to do today. He sat in a chair for a few seconds before realizing that it was the chair that the string was attached to.

"Bloody fail, how did I not notice?"

Remembering an idea he had yesterday, Bakura suddenly had an idea of what he should do today.

He went to his desk to get something. Then he came across an unfamiliar little slip of paper that had an address on it.

Reading the address aloud, he realized that it was the address of a hotel the same distance away from him that he was from Yugi's house.

"What a weird coincidence," he said aloud, not bothering to wonder why he even had the paper or trying to remember when he put it there. He shoved it into his pocket.

Then he picked up Kuriby and put him on his head. The little kitten purred happily because he was super comfy.

Kuriby mentally made a note of the fact that this was his new favorite spot and he knew where he was sleeping tonight. (for some reason, we know what he is thinking)

Bakura grabbed some money, his keys, and his deck. Secretly, he only carried it around with him everywhere like he was Yugi because it contained his favorite card which was very dear to him. And also because he liked to be prepared. Because again, for some reason, life in Domino was just like a strange and Egyptian-history-plot-based-and-world-threatening Professor Layton game. Except instead of giving you puzzles and earning picarats, everyone wants to play a card game and earn starchips or locater cards or some other rubbish like that.

So after doing a last few whatevers

_Lazyass author._

and checking the Ring and string (words that Bakura suddenly discovered rhymed), he left his home and went out.

On the floor in his room, where Kuriby had slept last night, lied the Change of Heart card.

* * *

**Transition~.**

* * *

_At the Toky-Cari Suites hotel..._

"What do you mean you 'ran out of ice cubes'?! What kind of [EFF!]ing hotel is this? I demand that you make more now!"

{"brablegrlvletalkingwecanthea r"}

"You know what?! [EFF!] it! You people are [EFF!]ing horrible! Goodbye!" And with that, Marik violenty hung up the phone.

"Frig! All of these people are frigging idiots! And the worse part is that somehow, there is [EFF!]ing no one named Steve here! Frig, I wish I could just frigging hug them all!"

Realizing what he had just said, Marik violently hit the side of his head with his hand and shouted, "Shut up and go away!"

Marik had decided last night that he would have to do something today without Bakura. He was pondering exactly what though. Bored, he decided to just have breakfast and then take his motorcycle around the city until he came up with something.

As he walked through the lobby on his way to breakfast, he looked around at everything again, for no reason.

The hotel, named the Toky-Cari Suites Hotel, was exactly what it sounded like. A Japanese-Egyptian themed hotel with stuff from Tokyo and Cairo. Coincidentally, there was a similar place back in Egypt called the Cari-Toky Suites Hotel that was pretty much a mirror image of this place.

Marik had used the Millenium Rod on the managers of both hotels to allow him to keep a full two rooms from each. For free. He had 4 rooms FFF. For. Friggin. Free. (The suprising thing is that neither of them were named Steve. It was the only time in his entire life that he had been able to use mind control on someone not named Steve. Ever.)

As he was walking, he noticed a girl in front of him staring at him. As he passed her, the girl punched him in the arm for no reason and then turned around and walked away as if nothing happened.

"WHAT THE [EFF!]ING FRIG WAS THAT FOR?!" Marik shouted, holding his arm.

* * *

_*walks in*_  
_'Later, Marik will learn that the girl was a random girl who had read a different fanfic that Marik had been in. She invaded this one to get revenge. This is because the person known to Aquailita as the 'insert hacker' convinced her that this was unpopular and that she wouldy be noticed. She will become wrong. Also the aforementioned hacker will also insert again telling me to leave.'  
*walks out*_

_What a lazy way to transition.  
Wait a minute!  
Ishizu get out of this insert!_

* * *

After breakfast, Marik donned his self proclaimed 'awesomely-sexy-motorcycle-riding-gear' and headed out to do whatever the frig he felt like.

* * *

**Transition~.**

* * *

_That was the worst 'meawhile with another character' I have ever seen._

* * *

Bakura stood in front of the jewelry shop window, looking at the necklaces. Not quite what he wanted, but they would surely have what he did way inside.

Just before he entered the store, he heard a loud noise coming from down the road. What sounded like a motorcycle zoomed by so fast that he couldn't see who was on it. Also, it blew his hair a bit violenty.  
(Of course, the cuteness of Ryou's hair can never be messed up by a mere wind! So don't worry!) The kitten on Bakura's head mewed as he was jossled a bit to the side.

After gently touching Kuriby's head to calm him down, Bakura entered the store.

He asked an employee where the necklaces and chains were.

"Over there," the man said, pointing to a section that had the male accessories.

"Thanks."

Bakura browsed the different sizes, colors, and thicknesses.

* * *

**Small "Transition~".**

* * *

After about ten minutes of looking, Bakura had come across two different chains of interest to him. They were both the right size and length. However, one was the right thickness and the other was the right color he wanted. The one of the right thickness was gold- colored. And apparently, it wasn't actually made of real gold, it was just painted with real gold.

And how exactly do we know that?

Something inside Bakura told him not to get anything that had real gold on it.

_Spoiler! The Millenium Items are made of 100% real gold!_  
Hey! No spoilers!  
_Get back in there!  
*points to story*_  
*sulks and heads back*  
_Also that wasn't actually a real spoiler._

Also, the clasp was all wrong.

The other one was just the right color he wanted, but it seemed a little too thin.

Suddenly, Kuriby jumped off of Bakura's hair and ran somewhere nearby. Bakura looked over at him.

When he was sure Bakura was looking, Kuriby jumped up and motioned towards one particular chain type. Then he did the same thing again, but with a particular clasp.

Bakura gasped and looked at the kitty's selections. The chain was the perfect everything. Size, shape, and color and whatevers. It actually looked like Yugi's, but with links Hadley the size. And the clasp was perfect also. It looked like just the right size and type. It was easy to open in a hurry, but not enough to break open by force.

"Perfect!" Bakura said as he picked up Kuriby. Rubbing noses with him, Bakura told him, "You're so adorably smart!"

Kuriby mewed with delight and adorably licked him on the nose.

About half an hour later, Bakura had indicated his selected chain and length and clasp, recieved his newly created neck chain, paid the money, and was walking towards the door.

After letting Kuriby back on his head, Bakura began to exit the store. As he reached his hand to open it, he was momentarily suprised to see someone already opening it from the other side.

Bakura politely stepped aside to let the other person in when he realized who it was.

"Marik?"

"Bakura? Uh- I mean... Ryou."

Bakura's first instinct was to get the bloody hell away from there. But then he decided to not make a fuss and just talk to Marik like a normal person.

"Hello, Marik. What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing!"

"Well I asked first." Looking behind him, Bakura noticed a motorcycle that had the same colors as the blur that had passed earlier. _So that's who it was_, he thought.

Marik felt that he wouldn't be seeing Bakura anytime soon, so he decided to just deal with Ryou and try to make a good third impression on him (since the first and second were total fails) and also get used to him, just in case this situation became more frequent. So, he politely asked him, "What's in the bag?"

Bakura picked up on the mood of the situation and realized that he should just get used to this Marik guy in case these encounters became more frequent. "Well if you _must_ know..." He reached into the bag and pulled out his purchase. "I bought this just now."

Huh... "Why does it remind me of the one Yugi Mutou has?" _Why would he buy something like that?_ "And what is it for?"

Trying to act cheerful, Bakura smiled and said, "Well if you must know..." The perfect time to try it on. He undid the clasp, put it aroung his neck, and then redid the clasp in the back. As expected, it was easy to quickly open and close. He let the chain hang. Then, held his fingers in a big circle and linked it with the chain. He tugged down on it, as if the circle was a pendant.

It took Marik only five seconds to realized that Ryou was pretending to hang the Millenium Ring from the chain. "Wait, what? Why?"

Seing that Marik understood, Bakura lowered his hands and continued. "Well, I broke the string. That seems to happen alot. So instead of just having an easy-to-break string holding the Ring up and having to retie or replace it every time it breaks, I decided to get this removable chain which is sturdier and I can take off or put on whenever I want. Also it looks cool." He mummbled that last part.

Marik didn't know what to say to that except, "Well that's nice, I suppose." The conversation seemed to grow dead and boring. Marik decided that he wanted to leave before he screwed things up again. "Well I guess I'll be going then," he said as he turned to go, forgetting why he even wanted to go inside anyway.

Bakura thought for a moment. He realized that he should just let this guy stay with him, just because he didn't really have anything better to do. And also because Marik seemed like he was bored as well and really wanted to hang out with him, even though he wasn't exactly the Bakura that Marik was looking for. Still...

"Marik, wait," he called out.

"Hm?" Marik turned around.

"You know, you could... I guess you can hang out with me today if you want," he said, hoping this wouldn't turn out badly.

Marik was taken by suprise at Ryou's offer. _Did he really just ask me that?_ he wondered. "Are you sure?" he asked sceptically. "Do you really want _me_ to hang out with _you_?"

"Sure, I won't mind. As long as you don't _try_ anything on me."

"What?! Why would I _try_ anything? What are you implying?!"

_Nope, not doing this. I am _not_ letting that get written. _  
_*blushes a bit* _  
_Oh well whatever... I guess we can put it in. _  
_*folds arms and cringes a bit while blushing*_

"What do you think I am implying?!" Bakura asked. He was referring to what had happened yesterday morning, when Marik had grabbed his arm and shook him, but now he was curious to see what he would say.

"I am _NOT_ gay!" Marik shouted.

"I never said you were," _But I thought it_. "I just don't want you attacking me or something."

Marik looked a bit embarrased. "Oh... Um... Okay then. Ahehehe...*nervous laugh*"

Bakura looked at him weird. _At least he hadn't thought I meant he would try something on the Ring's Bakura. That would've been weird. And then I would be wondering what that "_something_" was._

Bakura shuddered.

_*blushes*  
*hopes he didn't accidentally insert that*_

Marik noticed the shudder. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing!" Bakura said, smiling. He brushed off that part of the conversation. "Anyway, were you planning to go anywhere before I showed up?"

"Not really." He didn't tell Ryou, but he was actually hoping Bakura would show up at some point today. However, that seemed unlikely because Ryou had left his Ring at home. "Were you?"

"Well I was planning to go home and drop this stuff off," Bakura said, indicating the bag. "But I guess I don't have to." He took the receipt out of the bag and put it in his pocket. "I guess I'll let you decide first."

Marik was about to ask if he could just move his motorcycle somewhere when he suddenly had an evil idea! _I am going to turn Ryou into my own little Marik prodigy! Now even if Bakura doesn't want to go along with my ideas, then at least a part of him will. Litterally! Ahahahahahaaaaa!_

* * *

_*walks in again*  
_ _Hello again.  
_ _Apparently Aquailita is cutting this chapter in half because she wants to put a 'cliffhanger' here that isn't actually a cliffhanger, and also because this is getting too long.  
_ _Also, I was supposed to say something here that I do believe is actually part of the stuff I actually have to say, but I don't know if I'm getting paid to say. Unfortunately, she forgot what that was before I could learn what it is and say it here for her.  
_ _Whatever.  
_ _And I wonder who that 'someone' is that is going to be happy in a few chapters. It better be me. _ _I'm _still_ bored.  
*walks out again*_

* * *

**So anyway! Yeah... I'm not sure what I think of this chapter. I think it turned out good, but I don't really know. So I'm just going to say it turned out okay.**

**Oh and I have a question for you to answer in your review. When the time comes that YamiBakura comes out, do you want me to refer to him as Bakura and the other Bakura as Ryou, or would you rather me call him Florence and leave Ryou as Bakura? In fact, how do you want me to refer to either of them? Any combination of the things people call them is fine, including Bakura, Ryou, RyouBakura, YamiBakura, Bakura Ryou, etc. As long as it makes it easier for you to understand who is who.  
I will give you enough time to answer. I won't post the chapter it happens until I get enough responses.**

**This is part 1 of a chapter. I decided that this was getting too long, so I just cut it where I did and decided to continue later.**

**Another thing: in his mind, Marik is refering to this Bakura as 'Ryou' in order to not confuse himself. However unless clearly indicated, outside of Marik's thoughts, the name 'Bakura' has always refered to Ryou, because YamiBakura isn't really Bakura; he just uses the real Bakura's first name.  
*hopes I didn't confuse anyone***

**Another note: recently, I have watched more of season 2. And apparently, Marik really DOES see Bakura Ryou, both when YamiBakura was in control while looking like him and when the real Bakura back in control. But for our purposes, that never happened.**

_Then why did you mention it?_

**GET THE BLOODY FRIG OUT OF MY EndingAN YOU DAMN BASTARD-PERSON!  
*throws cookie at him but missies*  
BLOODY FRIG!**

**So um... Oh gosh I think I forgot what else I was going to include in here.**

**Oh well. See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEE~!**


	8. 8: Messing With Children

**So here I am again.**

**Since this is part 2 of a chapter, let's get right back into it! (See EndingAN for disclaimer/contradiction.)**

**A quick recap:  
Bakura wakes up and decides to go shopping for a convenient neck chain for his Millenium Ring, which is still firmly nailed to the wall and the string which it used to hang by still cut and tied around a chair. Kuriby helps him pick out a chain and a clasp.  
Meanwhile, Marik wakes up and decides to randomly take a ride around town looking for something to do because apparently Bakura was currently replaced by Ryou. For whatever reason, he goes to the jewelry shop.  
The two meet again outside the store and Bakura decides to let Marik hang out with him.  
And then I make the chapter end in a cliffhanger which results from Marik having an evil idea involving Ryou.**

**But first a warning: (See the (*) in the EndingAN before continuing on. This message is mostly for fans of gnippihsfieht. Also could be known as fieht gnippihs. LOL.)**

**Ok so let's get right into it!  
This chapter is a little longer than expected, so just deal with it. Although, I feel like this is one of my most well-written chapters so far since the first two.**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

While Marik was silent, Bakura noticed an evil-ish expression had come on his face. A little nervous, he asked, "Um, Marik? Are you okay?"

Marik snapped out of it and looked him in the face. "Yes of course I'm [EFF!]ing okay." He reevaluated what he had said. He looked at Ryou, who had a slightly shocked expression on his face, and realized that he should probably not talk to him the same way he did to Bakura. This guy didn't really trust him. Not really.  
Marik vowed to differentiate between the two mentally and not confuse them.

_Anyone from the audience want to make a bet with me?  
Fifty bucks says he doesn't last the chapter._

This was going to take some getting used to. _How can I force my will and ideals on Ryou without treating him like I do Bakura?_ "Anyway, Ryou..."

"Marik, please don't call me that."

"Why not?"

"Because it feels bloody awkward to hear you calling me by my last name."

"Well what else I supposed to call you?"

"How about my _first_ name?"

"Well that is confusing to me." Then Marik thought that Ryou might not know that he and Bakura hang out, so he might not understand why the name thing was important to him.

"Look, Marik, even though my name is Bakura, you can refer to me as Ryou in your mind if it helps. Just don't accidentally call me any of your friend's nicknames, alright?"

_So he _does_ know!_ This whole thing was getting very complicated. It made Marik's head hurt to think about it. "Look, I'm just going to call you Ryou okay?! Makes things much less difficult for both of us."

_Okay! _  
_That's it! _  
I'm _taking control now! _  
_*changes storyline*_

_*puts it in place*_  
_ *walks away to let the story take its course*_

"So, where did you say you wanted to go again?"

"We're almost there..." Marik said as he dragged Bakura along.

For some reason, Marik had chosen the mall of all places to go to. Some how, Bakura felt that the other him wouldn't usually let Marik go to a mall without some verbal restraint or a pranking idea that he agreed on.

_You're bloody right._  
_But it is absolutely hilarious and it improves the story._  
_So I'll allow it._  
_For now._

"Seriously, Marik. Where are we going?"

"You'll see!" Marik said.

Bakura then saw that Marik was leading him to a toy store.

"Tah _DAAAH_~!" Marik said dramatically when they entered the store.

Bakura looked around trying to find something special that Marik had led him to. "What? What's so special about it?"

"Oh, come now. The old man's store isn't the only game shop in town. They must have _some_ better stuff in here!"

In truth, Marik wanted to play a prank on Yugi, which Marik knew shopped there sometimes, and hopefully Ryou would get engrossed enough to leave him be, and then maybe he could laugh about it later and get him interested in Marik's pranks. It was perfect.

"Well, not really... I don't see much dif-"

Marik noticed the pause and asked, "What is it?" Bakura had stopped dead in his tracks and was looking at something. "What the frig are you looking at?"

Bakura pointed at a display. "LOOK!"

"What?!" Marik looked to where he was pointing. It was a small little display with stuff from-

"Monster World!" Bakura shouted. "I've been looking for this one for months!" He said as he indicated one of the figures for the table-top RPG.

"Yes, of course," Marik said, trying to pretend he knew all along that Ryou would like it. "See, I told you this place was perfect." Marik closed his eyes and made a prideful pose as if he had planned it all along.

"I didn't even know they sold this here!" Bakura said. "Thank you, Marik."

"You're we-EH!" He was taken by surprise by an unexpected hug from the side. Marik opened his eyes and looked over to see Ryou hugging him with a happy expression on his face.

The hug only lasted three seconds. Yet it caught Marik off guard in more ways than one. He had the sudden urge to pet him. But then he remembered that it was _Ryou_ hugging him, and not Bakura, and stopped himself from doing so.

However, that didn't keep him from saying, "You're welcome, Fluffy."

The hug ended and Bakura looked at Marik with confusion about the name. "What?"

"What?" Marik didn't realize he had called Ryou "Fluffy".

"Nevermind," Bakrua said, as he turned his attention back to the Monster World display, which was his favorite game. He liked it even more than Duel Monsters. Not that he would let the others know.

Marik looked at him for a few seconds before remembering his plan. "Anyway, I'm going to mess with the Duel Monsters and Pokémon cards as a prank," he said to Bakura. "Wanna help?"

Bakura looked up. "What? Why? And what could I do?"

"You just take these," Marik handed him some rectangular stickers, "And put them on the Duel Monsters card packs. I'll put these," Marik held up some more rectangular stickers, "And put them on the Pokémon card packs."

"What would that do?" Bakura asked as he examined the stickers. They looked exactly like the front of Pokémon card packs.

"It will make everyone who wants to buy Duel Monsters cards buy Pokémon instead!" Marik explained. "And everyone who wants to buy Pokémon will buy Duel Monsters cards instead! Also, the people who produce the Duel Monsters cards will notice the decrease in sales and lower their prices to get people to buy them again. So not only will we confuse people, but we will also be responsible for making Duel Monsters cards cheaper! It's _so_ frigging diabolically funny, isn't it?"

Bakura thought for a moment before agreeing. "You, know that, actually does sound pretty bloody funny. I'll help you."

Marik looked at Ryou, feeling successful at gaining his trust with the Monster World stuff and the interesting him with the prank. He walked away to go find the Pokémon cards.

Bakura first selected the figure he had wanted to buy and headed off for where the Duel Monsters cards were.

* * *

**Mini 'Transition~'.**

* * *

Bakura stood there in front of the Duel Monsters card packs with the stickers in hand. He then wondered where Marik had gotten or made them and why he went through the trouble of doing so.

He brushed that question aside for the moment.

Bakura looked around to make sure no one was watching him. When he was sure he wasn't being observed, he started peeling the stickers and placing them on the front of the packs. He placed the sticker backs in the empty bag from the jewelry shop, which he had forgotten to throw away.

Within five minutes, he was almost done. He had only two packs left to go. As he put a sticker on one of them, he looked over at the other one thoughtfully. For no reason that is apparent to us, he decided that he wanted to buy it just for the hell of it, and he didn't put a sticker on it. He picked it up.

His task now done, Bakura headed over to the checkout counter, catching a glimpse of Marik near the Pokémon card display. He bought the Monster World figureine and Duel Monsters Pack and headed back to Marik.

By the time Bakura reached him, Marik had finished his part of the prank.

Marik noticed him approaching and looked up. "So, did you do it?" he asked.

"Yup," Bakura confirmed. "You know, I usually don't do pranks, but I'm actually looking forward to seeing the results of this scheme of yours. It's pretty bloody brilliant."

"What?" Marik was taken aback by Bakura praising a plan of his. Then he remembered that, again, this was Ryou, _NOT_ Bakura. _Stupid frigging fail!_ "Uh... I mean, thanks."

Suddenly he wished Bakura was there with his response. If this person who wasn't used to pranks or Marik praised one of Marik's pranks, then maybe Bakura would have. After all, this prank affected more people than just Yugi Mutou. It also affected the Pharaoh, who used Yugi's deck more than Yugi himself did, as well as everyone else who shopped here, and then eventually everyone who bought Duel Monsters cards.  
For once, Bakura might have been impressed with him. Too bad he wasn't here to see it.

But at least Ryou had. _My little "turn-Ryou-into-my-little-Marik-prodigy" plan is working. It also might be funny to see how Bakura will react to this. It's sure to annoy Bakura a bit if Ryou starts to act more like me._

_It _is_ annoying.  
Please stop it._

"By the way," Bakura said, snapping Marik out of his thoughts. "Where did you get the stickers anyway? Did you make them? And why?" As he asked his questions, Bakura held up the remaining sticker he hadn't used.

"That, my friend, is a story for another time!"

* * *

***Flashback cut scene***

_*At the Duel Monsters card-production place*_

"So I want you to make about a hundred stickers as images of the front of the card packs." Marik says to the production manager.

_*At the Pokémon card-production place*_

"Why should I do that? Why would we waste our time and resources on such as stupid prank request?" the production manager asks.

_*Back at the Duel Monsters place*_

"Because I command you!" Marik holds up the Millenium Rod.

_*Back at the Pokémon place*_

"OH _YEAH_? How exactly do you expect to make me?"

_*Duel Monsters*_

"With _THIS_!"  
He holds up the rod and it glows a bit.  
"Now, Mr. Steve."

_*switch*_

"I command you..."

_*switch*_

"...to grant my request..."

_*switch*_

"... and when you are done...*

_*switch*_

"...give me the products..."

_*switch*_

"...and then forget all about me."

*split screen focussing on both production managers*

Both say, "Yes, master Marik."

*regular screen focusses back on Marik*

"How the [EFF!] do you even know my name?! I didn't even tell you!"

***End flashback cut scene***

* * *

Then Marik noticed the sticker in Bakura's hand. "Uh, Ryou. You missed one."

"Oh no I didn't. I bought the last one." He took his purchase out of the bag. "See?"

Marik looked at it with a neutral expression. "Okay..."

"So, now what?" Bakura asked.

"I don't know. Maybe..." Marik looked at his wrist to check the time on a watch he didn't have. He then looked at a clock that was conveniently on the wall next to them. "It's about lunchtime. Wanna go out to eat?" He asked Bakura.

"Well we are in the mall after all. We could just eat at the food court here."

"Yes! Brilliant idea Ryourik!"

"What the bloody hell did you just call me?!" Bakura exclaimed.

"Um... uh... nothing," Marik hastily said.

Bakura looked at him with a suspicious look on his face. "You're wierd."

"Yes, I know."

* * *

**Transition~.**

* * *

Bakura and Marik were down at the food court, eating and making smalltalk at one of the places there.

_In other words, she didn't bother to think of a place to have them eat at.  
This probably means something happens in this scene that is irrelevant to the location.  
Maybe._

Bakura finished eating and cleaned his hands on his napkin. Then he took out his newly bought card pack. He opened it and put the wrapper on the table.

Suddenly, Kuriby jumped off of his head. He took the wrapper and the empty jewelry store bag and headed to the nearest garbage can to throw them out.

When the kitten had jumped off of Bakura's head, Marik was startled. "_AH_! Bakura, why is your hair alive?!" In his confusion, and since this was regarding Bakura's hair, Marik had accidentally called him 'Bakura' instead of 'Ryou' like he usually would have.

"It's not my hair," Bakura told him. "It's my kitten, Kuriby. You've seen him before. twice. Right?"

Both of them remebered the two times Marik had encountered the white kitty. Both times, Kuriby had scratched Marik on the leg after Bakura had run away from him.

"OH yes. Now I remember. Stupid frigging cat."

When he said that, Kuriby had come back and heard him. He hissed at Marik and then jumped back onto Bakura's head. Bakura reached up and pet him gently.

Marik hissed back.

Bakura ignored Marik's hiss and turned his attention to the cards he had bought. He shifted through them to see what his spontaneous purchase had given him. His attention suddenly became caught on one particular card.

"What the bloody buggaring hell?" He held the card up to his face to be sure he hadn't been mistaken.

No, he wasn't.

He had found a Kuriboh card.

He brushed away the disappointment and thought of it with a new light. He took the card and handed it to Kuriby. The little white adorable kitten took his namesake's card and layed his adorable little head on it.

Yes, it's true. Bakura had named Kuriby after Kuriboh, not only the weakest creature in Duel Monsters, but also a card Bakura had never even owned before.

It was obvious that he didn't plan to keep Kuriboh in his deck. Speaking of decks...

He took out his deck from his deckholder belt thing and began to sort through his old cards to place his new cards among them.

After having looked through it completely and having placed all of the new cards, Bakura took a double-take, feeling that something was off.

He looked through his deck again.

And then once again.

And then a _fourth_ time.

As he frantically started to look through it a fifth time, Marik noticed and became concerned. "Ryou, are you okay?"

"Uh..." Bakura said nervously. "C-could you look through my deck for me please?" he held his deck out to Marik. "I- I think I'm missing a card... But I could be mistaken though..."

Marik was, again, taken by surprise. Bakura never trusted Marik with his deck. The last time he tried to touch it, Bakura had almost broken his hand and said 'If you bloody touch it again, I'll remove your bloody hand from your bloody body, both of you, and send it to the bloody Shadow Realm!'  
That didn't even make any sense, but Marik had taken it seriously and didn't dare do it again.

Now, he hesitated before taking the deck. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am," Bakura said. He looked a bit sad for some reason.

Marik hesitated for only a second more before taking ahold of the cards and looking at them. He didn't allow himself to dwell on the cards themselves. He was only holding them so he could check them. But what for?

The minute he had glanced at all of the cards in the deck, Marik realized that one card was missing. A card that was _always_ there.

"Ryou," he said.

"Yes, Marik?"

"Where is your Change of Heart card?"

Bakura's worried expression changed to one that was shocked and saddened. He banged his head on the table.

* * *

_Stupid buggaring cat. I'm selling you later. I can make money _and_ keep Marik from saying anything about it.  
Also, apparently this chapter isn't really a continuation, and is really its own chapter.  
Leave it to Aqualitia to mislabel cliff hangers and continuations...  
Also does anyone know if TimeTheFinalFrontier plays Duel Monsters?_

_Oh I almost forgot. (no not really)  
All of you that excepted my bet owe me $50.  
You're luck I didn't say 50 bucks for every time he screwed up.  
And don't say that I cheated because I had no idea that Marik would call Ryou 'Fluffy'.  
(But I suspected that he would.)_

* * *

**YAY! CHAPTER!**

**Like the fail I am, I accidentally left the page while I was typing and forgot to save beforehand, meaning the document went back to the previous chapter. so I had to copy-paste-type finish all over again. I will now attempt to remember what I had in the EndingAN.  
Here we go...**

**This chapter is no longer considered a continuations. I is actually just it's own chapter. The reason I considered it so at first is because the first two paragraphs of this one were already written, but I moved them here and continued from there because I need a good chapteral transition.**

**Another question, do you guys want me to change Bakura's name to Ryou in this whole thing to avoid confusion? Or do you not mind and can keep up?**

**So anyway, according to one of my reviewers, the insert-hacker-person wants to know if he's getting paid to do inserts here. My answer to that is NO! YOU ARE _NOT_ GETTING PAID TO MAKE COMMENTARY IN HERE. Unless you are a character or are contributing positively to this fanfic.  
Even if you _were_ a character, I don't pay characters, so that means nothing.  
Now, if someone is bribing you to be here and make comments, and paying you because you don't want to be here, that is a different situation. However, none of that money is comming from me.  
So right now I have some pizza, tacos, and cookies here. No matter who he is, he has to like at least one of them. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put them at the end of a chapter so I can lure him into the EndingAN so I can see him.  
I hope it works.**

**Anyway...**

**I hope I didn't confuse you _too_ much with the flashback-cutscene and that you were able to keep up.**

***Okay now, brace yourselves! Tee hee hee. Who am I talking to, exactly? Oh, no one in particular... *cough*theifshipping*cough*fangirls*cough***

**Hehehe...**

**Anyway... (I say that a lot, don't I?) see you in the next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	9. 9: Card Search and Cat Scratch

**Hi peoples! Miss me?**

**So far, this has been going good so far, but not as good as I hoped. I'd like to work on some reviews, not only do they help me write more chapters, but it also tells me how to make reading this better for all of you in general. Also I usually triple-check and edit these chapters, but somehow I still miss some errors. And then I feel slightly stupid. So please let me know about any errors you see as well.  
So keep those reviews coming!  
Apparently people like to set review goals on their stories nowadays, so let me do that as well. I think I'm aiming for... Thirty. I already have about 10, so this shouldn't be too hard.**

_Speaking of reviews, I want to know if anyone has lost any money to me.  
I didn't get any reviews from the last chapter.  
Where the bloody hell are they?!_

**Ok now, back to business!**

**A quick recap: After purchasing a neck chain for the Millenium Ring with the help of Kuriby, Bakura runs into Marik outside of the jewelry shop. He politely invites Marik to spend time with him for the day. They head to the mall and go inside a toy store. There, Bakura finds some Monster World stuff, Marik convinced Bakura to help him with his card-prank, and Bakura buys a new pack of Duel Monsters cards. They go to eat at the food court and Bakura checks out his new cards. When he opens them up and places them in his deck, he realizes that for some reason his favorite card, the Change of Heart, is missing.**

**Ok so don't tell the insert hacker person, but I'm placing the tacos and pizza and cookies at the end of this chapter. I'm using extreme author's power to keep him from seeing this. So you had better hope that he can't see the future or else I will have to do something.  
Like... Um... I will NOT share the trap food with you! Yes! Take that! Also I think I saw Ishizu hanging around here a few chapters ago. I hope she isn't working with him.**

**A word about some of the stuff in here. I don't know exactly how much the card means to Bakura or Ryou in the actual YGO, but for our purposes, it's very important. Also you can see a bit of YGO S-0 in here (Monster World reference from last chapter) such as where Ryou lives. Anyway just let me know what you people think of the way I made this whole thing work. Also someone said that I have too much abridged here? What do the rest of you think about that?**

**Anyway, like I said, review, tell me how I'm doing, have some laughs, and don't tell -hacker over here know. Ok? We're good?  
Ok good then.**

**And about that warning from the last chapter, let me tell you this: this chapter is where the "slipping" in ThiefSlipping comes into play. However, I will only say the word once, so pay close attention. [Minor Edit: No it's not. False alarm, sorry. _That_ comes later hehehe.]  
I never realized that a kitten I added as a joke would turn into such an important plot component. That's when you truly know you've written something right. **

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Marik looked at Bakura with worry. He knew that the Change of Heart was Bakura's favorite and most treasured card, and unbeknownst to him or Ryou, he had always suspected that Ryou felt the same about it too. Apparently he was right. "Listen, don't worry about it," he said, reaching a hand across the table and putting on Ryou's shoulder. "I'm sure you haven't lost it."

"Well then where the damn bloody buggaring hell is it?" he said, looking up. His eyes looked slightly teary.

"What the frig is wrong with you? Calm down." Marik was slightly confused. Surely the card wasn't_ that _meaningful to him, was it? Bakura only ever said "damn bloody buggaring hell" when he was _really_ serious or emotional about something. Ryou and Bakura were more alike than he realized.

Suddenly Marik felt like he had his hand on Bakura's shoulder and not Ryou's. He tried to brush away the feeling, but was only partially successful.

"Maybe you left it at home?" Marik suggested.

Bakura shook his head. "No, I'm pretty sure I didn't. I always keep my cards together, and I don't remember taking it out for whatever reason I might do so." He folded his arms on the table and layed his chin on his hands. "I can't believe it's gone."

"How do you know it's gone?" Marik asked him. "Like I said, maybe you just left it at home or something."

"The thing is I _couldn't_ have left it at home. I always keep it in my deck an I take my deck everywhere with me. It must have fallen out or something."

"Oh, yeah? How does that work out? It's in your frigging deck-holder thing. How does it just fall out? Think. Where could you have possibly lost a single card on it's own?" Marik pointed out.

"I don't bloody know! Why don't you ask it when I don't find it?!"

"Well did you take one of them out for any reason recently? You had it when I saw you yesterday morning."

"I probably lost it when I was leaving the roof," he mumbled. Bakura slouched down and hid his face in his arms on the table.

The motion caused Kuriby to lose his balance and fall off of Bakura's head and on to the table. Luckily, Marik had moved the food things over a few minutes ago.

Kuriby mewed as he hit the table, alerting Bakura to what had happened. The Kuriboh card had also fallen off his head. "Oh sorry, Kuri," he said, giving the kitten a nickname.

Kuriby mewed back in forgiveness.

Bakura looked back and forth between the kitten, the card, and his deck still in Marik's hand. He replayed in his mind what Marik had said. "_You had it when I saw you yesterday..."_

Suddenly, Bakura remembered how he had gotten away from Marik that afternoon. He had thrown a card at him! (He was still shocked that he had hit Marik with any kind of precision. Usually he was just a little spaz.)

At the idea that he might have accidentally thrown the Change of Heart card at Marik without knowing, he abruptly stood up and prepared to leave.

He would have left Marik there without a word had Bakura not remembered Kuriby. He picked up the kitten and _didn't_ put him on his head (Kuriby might fall off when he was running).

Marik noticed that Ryou was about o leave so he quickly asked, "Where are you going?"

It was then that he remembered that Marik was there. "To get my bloody card back. You didn't happen to see the card I threw at you yesterday, did you?" he asked expectantly.

"No I-" It was then that Marik finally remembered that he _had_ seen the card that Ryou had thrown at him. And it was the Change of Heart. _Friggin fail! How did I forget that?!_ "Actually, I did. It was the Change of Heart card!" he exclaimed.

"Well, what are we waiting for?!" Bakura said as he walked a few steps away. "Let's go get my bloody card back!"

* * *

**Transition~.**

* * *

Marik and Bakura had left the mall and were walking towards the street that Bakura had bumped into Marik yesterday afternoon. They reached the spot that was at the middle of the block and was near a little dead-end alley. They were about two blocks from Bakura's place.

"Come on, help me search," Bakura said as he turned his attention to the sidewalk. He looked very carefully at the ground, trying to find where the could be.

Something in his mind said that the wind probably had blown it away by now, but he refused to listen to it. He kept on searching.

Kuriby kept mewing at Bakura, trying to get his attention from the top of his head as he looked.

"Not now, Kuri. I'm busy," he said to the kitten.

Kuriby gave up after a minute. As Bakura checked the alley a few feet away from where they had been standing yesterday, Kuriby jumped off his head. He walked over to Marik and mewed at his feet.

Marik noticed his at looked at him with dislike and mistrust. "What the frig are you looking at, Bakura Jr?"

_I swear if he calls that cat 'Bakura Jr.' again I'm going to beat the crap out of him in the Shadow Realm._

Kuriby mewed at Marik expectantly, trying to point something out to him.

"You better not be wondering why I'm not helping. I feel that Ryou has to do this alone. Besides, why aren't _you_ helping him?"

Kuriby realized that Marik wasn't going to remember on his own anytime soon. So he did what he was sure would jog his memory: reenactment.

He walked up to Marik and scratched him on the same leg he had scratched him yesterday.

"AH! Why the [EFF!] do you keep [EFF!]ing scratching me you stupid frigging [EFF!]ing cat!" Marik shouted at him. "Ryou, your cat scratched me again!"

He then remembered that it was on the same leg and near the same spot that the kitten had scratched him yesterday. He remembered the scene.

* * *

**~Flashback~**

_The card flew over to Marik like a boomerang-arrow-frisbee thing and struck the Millenium Rod straight-on, causing it to fall out of Marik's hand._

_"Frig! What the [EFF!] did you do that for?!" Marik yelled as he bent down to pick it up. As soon as he bent down, Bakura proceeded to run the rest of the way home._

_The moment Bakura had thrown the card, Kuriby had jumped out of his arms and ran over to Marik. When the card had landed after hitting the Rod, he had picked it up for Bakura, scratched Marik again, and ran after him._

_Just before that stupid cat had taken it, Marik had noticed which card it was. It was the Change of Heart._

**~Flashback end~**

* * *

He remembered it all. It was Kuriby who had the effing card! _Stupid, frigging stupid memory fail! [EFF!]ing frigging memory fail!_  
He walked into the alley after Ryou.

He suddenly had a tiny moment of déjà vu from when he met Bakura in an alley. The situations were completely different, and the setting and objects in them were too. The only similarities were him, Bakura('s host-person), and an alley.  
The differences were so obvious that he was able to easily shake off the feeling and keep walking.

He walked up to Bakura who was looking behind a box. "Ryou, I know where your card is," he said.

As soon as Marik said, that, he looked up with a big smile on his face. "Really?!" he said with delight. "Where is it?"

"At home," Marik said plainly.

Bakura's smile faded a bit. "Marik I told you, I would've know if it was at home. I appreciate you trying to cheer me up though," he said with a faint smile.

"It is. Your stupid kitten picked it up for you after you threw it at me. He probably forgot to give it back to you."

"Really?!" Bakura's face lit up again. Kuriby walked out from behind Marik and sat down next to Marik's feet.

Seeing the kitten, Marik shouted, "Ah! Evil!" and took two steps back from him.

Bakura reached over and picked up his kitty. He rubbed Kuriby's face against his cheek. "Oh, thank you Kuriby for looking out for me! You're such a smart little kitty!"

"Hey, don't forget about me!" Marik said. "I'm the one who remembered. and this cat didn't give the card back to you when you got back home! So thank me, not him!"

"OF course, thank you, Marrr- You know your leg is bleeding again?" Bakura had noticed the scratches and blood on Marik's leg.

"Yes I [EFF!]ing know because your stupid cat scratched me again."

"Well he doesn't like you, I think." _Hey, maybe Tristan was right. Maybe Kuriby _is_ an evil-repelling cat! No that's ridiculous, isn't it? Kuriby _is_ really smart. But I'm pretty sure he isn't necessarily evil-repelling._

"Well that kitten can just go right to hell for doing that to me!"

Kuriby jumped out of Bakura's arms and ran over ro Marik, paw raised and claws bared.

"No, Kuriby!" Bakura shouted as he moved his arms in front of Marik's legs.

This all happened so fast that none of them had time to do anything else or have any more reactions to anything. Kuriby's paw was still in motion and Bakura's arms were in its way.

Contact.

"Ow, bloody _ow_!" Bakura cried as he felt his own kitty's claws dig into his right arm. He began bleeding.  
Marik was untouched.  
When Kuriby noticed what he had accidentally done to his owner, he sat down timidly and mewed sadly.

_That damn... bloody cat! Bloody freaking hell!  
I'm seriously going to sell that cat later!  
I don't care what he says about it, I'm not having that thing lounge on my head!_

"Kuriby... you stupid... _bloody cat! Bloody freaking hell_!" His head suddenly hurt and his neck felt all weird.

Marik noticed a change in the way Ryou had said that last part. He had been focusing on the kitten, but he looked over at Ryou the last second. He notice his hair briefly flare up and then settle back down again. What the frig? I must be hallucinating from the pain.

Bakura knew it had been an accident and was meant for Marik, but the action in itself was bad. He held his left hand over the scratches and shook his right pointer finger at Kuriby. "Bad kitty! No more scratching people!"

"_Mew_..."

Marik shook it off. He then remembered that they both had been scratched. "Ryou, we should probably get these scratches bandaged up or something before we bleed to death or get infected."

Bakura looked at Marik. "You're right about the infection part. But I'm sure we're not going to die from a little cat scratch."

"Yeah a cat scratch from a demonic kitty," Marik mumbled too quietly for Ryou to hear. _That cat actually reminds me of Bakura a lot more now. He's so cute and fluffy, but he hates me a bit and is deadly. Adorable, Fluffy, and deadly... _Those three words perfectly described both Kuriby and Bakura.

"Well anyway, we're only two blocks from my house, so we should go back there and I'll get us patched up and stuff." As he said this, Bakura (still holding his hand over his injury) pointed toward the apartment where he lived, which was two blocks away from where they were.

"Great, let's go." Marik actually became a bit exited and nervous. Bakura never invited him to see where he lived, even though Bakura had given Marik his address. So this should be exciting, right?

_Wrong!  
*changes story again, but only a bit*  
Don't worry, I didn't do much. I only changed the place Marik is going to be after this transition._

* * *

**Transition~.**

* * *

Marik sat on the stairs near Ryou's front door. He didn't know why Ryou hadn't just let him inside. Maybe Ryou _still _didn't trust him, after all. Or maybe it was because he had insulted his cat. Or maybe it was just because _he_ was the reason Ryou had almost lost his favorite card.

Whatever the reason, he could deal with it. As he sat there, he thought back to the events that had occurred that day.

He had thought of Ryou as Bakura several times.

And he had called him 'Bakura' a few times as well. And he had wished Bakura was there once.

He didn't know what was with this wierd stuff going on with him around Ryou, and he didn't know why it was happening. Maybe it was because the two are actually have some stuff in common, in spite of the huge difference in attitude and personality. There was the hair, to an extent, the way they kept the Change of Heart card in immediate reach, the fact that the Change of Heart was a favorite for both of them, they both liked Monster World (Bakura had mentioned it only once, but Marik had remembered), and some other minor things.

_But I have to stop doing that, though! Bakura and Ryou are two completely different people!_ he thought. _Even though they share the same body and stuff..._

This whole thing was getting very complicated. How did Yugi deal with it? Then again, the Pharaoh was friendly towards Yugi, so it was probably a lot less complicated.

* * *

**Meanwhile~.**

* * *

Inside, Bakura was getting out the first aid kit from the bathroom. He set it near the door.

Then he picked up Kuriby and brought him to his room. "Stay here, you bad kitty," Bakura said to him. "And also find my card please."

Upon entering, he quickly glanced towards the Millenium Ring on the wall and the string on the chair. He put Kuriby on his bed and went over to the chair. Not needing it anymore, he untied it and threw it away. He felt the back of his neck. His fingers rubbed against the chain.  
He briefly remembered the weight he felt on it earlier. But he figured it was nothing and he had just been briefly blinded my the pain. It didn't hurt much now, but it was still bleeding.

Bakura took it off and set it on his desk. He then unloaded the rest of his stuff he had on him- his Monster World figurine, his deck, the receipts and then went back to the door.

He picked up the first aid kit and went outside.

* * *

Marik heard the door opened and turned to see Ryou coming back.

Bakura quietly sat down next to Marik on the stairs and began cleaning his scratches. He noticed that Marik already had two other band-aids on his legs. One on each. Probably from yesterday.  
When he was done, Bakura carefully selected a bright purple band-aid for him. Then he did the same for his arm.

Marik looked at the band-aid. Then he looked at Ryou.  
Then back at the band-aid.  
_Purely coincidental_, he though. No way Ryou had purposely picked that color for him.

Right?

Because Bakura knew his favorite color was purple, and Ryou didn't...

_DAMMIT!_ he scolded himself. _Stop friggin thinkning about it!_

His thoughts calmed after a second.

However, Bakura had noticed Marik's troubled expression. "Marik, are you okay?" he asked.

"Meh? Erm... I'm fine. So now what?"

"Well, Kuriby is looking for my card. So no need to worry about that. But as for what to do now..." he trailed off in thought.

The two just sat there in silence, wondering what to do now.

Then Marik broke the silence by asking, "What were you doing before I ran into you this morning? Were you planning to do anything else?"

"Not really. I don't know what I was planning to do." Then he smiled. "But I did have a good time today, I guess. Thanks, Marik."

"Eh... You're welcome and stuff..."

"I still hate your cat."

"Calm down and leave Little Kuriboh alone!"

"Seriously, you need to put that cat on a leash."

"Oh, bugger off."

"Whatever. Anyway, Maybe I should just leave since I'm not doing anything useful here." Marik stood up. "Hey do you want the address for the hotel I'm staying at?"

Bakura suddenly remembered the paper in his pocket. "Oh! Toky-Cari? Yeah, I already have it. I know where it is."

"Really?"

"Yup. Here, look." He pulled the paper out of his pocket and handed it to Marik.

Marik looked at the paper. It was the address of the hotel, written in Bakura's handwriting. Not that he had seen Ryou's handwriting before."You wrote this?" he asked.

"No, I didn't. Not my handwriting." His thoughts turned to the spirit of the Millenium Ring. He really didn't like that guy. _He's staying nailed to the wall for another day. I like this peace. _Then he had another thought. If the other him already had the address Marik had given him, then maybe the two had shared other stuff. "Marik, do you by any chance have my email address? Or _his_ email address?"

Marik knew who Ryou was referring to by _his_, so he replied, "Yes I do." He recited Bakura's email address.

Ryou briefly looked shocked. "Well, that buggaring bastard uses my email too!" he muttered.

Bakura decided that he didn't want to deal with anymore of this 'other him' stuff with Marik anymore, so he tried to end the conversation. "Well anyway, Marik. Again, thanks for today and stuff. Maye I'll see you again soon? I'm doing stuff tomorrow though..."

Marik took this as a sign that he should probably leave now. "Yeah, you're welcome again. Bye." He waved and started walking down the steps.

Bakura waved back and headed back inside.

* * *

**Mini Transition~.**

* * *

Marik thought about what had just happened.

Then he decided to not think about it. Makes things easier, right?

He instead decided to think about the next council meeting, excluding Bakura.

He left the building, got on his obligatory anime motorcycle, and rode away.

* * *

Back in his room, Bakura took off the chain he had bought. He made sure it fit in the Millenium Rung's loop and then put it on his bedside table.

He heard a little mew from Kuriby and looked over at him.

The white kitty had a card in his mouth. He jumped on Bakura's bed and dropped it in front of him. Then he sat down and mewed again and looked adorable.

Bakura picked up the card, which had landed face down. He turned it over and gasped in surprise and joy.

It was his card.

He picked up Kuriby and rubbed the kitten's face against his cheek. "Oh, Kuri, thank you! Good kitty!"

"_Mew_."

Bakura stared into Kuriby's adorable brown eyes.

He wondered something about Kuriby. He got up and took Kuriby to the bathroom, made him face the mirror, and faced it himself. He compared their eyes, noticing that they (very creepily and strangely) had the exact same eye pigment. "Well that's a little wierd," He said. "But I guess that means that we're meant for each other, right?"

Kuriby mewed in agreement.

"Well I'm going to get you some stuff tomorrow, but you're staying home cuz you're still a bad boy for scratching people." _Anyway..._

Bakura then decided to set up his new Monster World figure.

As he walked into the game room, certain memories came back to him. He quickly shook them off, not wanting to remember.

He spent the next hour doing that stuff.

* * *

**Transition~.**

* * *

He spent the rest of the day doing stuff, then he got ready for tomorrow. Then he got ready for bed, putting his deck on a shelf out of Kuriby's reach, he hoped. Didn't want that cat getting ahold of another card. The only one he was allowed to have was the Kuriboh.

Bakura got into bed and fell asleep.

* * *

_Hello again, here I am to make an official Pre-EndingAN note for our lazy and horrible author.  
This chapter could have gone better, but it didn't and now we have a lame-ass ending. And yet, we're still hoping that people will bear with us for what _MIGHT_ be a better next chapter.  
__Also I'd like to inform you all that when I get out of here, Kuriby is going. I'm not having him near me or Marik. Just saying.  
I'd like to see someone try and stop me.  
_*throws a book at his arm*_  
Ow! What the bloody hell?!  
*rubs head*  
_Don't touch my Kuri!_  
__Hey! Go back out there! You're supposed to be sleeping!__  
_No!_  
Don't make me...  
_Ah!   
*jumps and flinched*  
Ok! I'm gone!  
*leaves*_  
Where are all these people coming from?!  
I wish I had some tacos... Or pizza... The sauce reminds me of blood...  
*smiles evilly*_

* * *

**I think this chapter turned out really crappy and totally the opposite of super-special-awesome. Whatever that is. Let me know what you think and stuff. I really didn't know how to end it there.**

**The next chapter kinda focusses a little on Kuriby. Again, I had no idea that Kuriby would turn out to be such an important character to the plot. But as I said, that's how you know you've made a good choice. the next chapter should be better I hope. **

**And Ishizu will be there yay! But it might just be verbally.**

**So this is where things start getting a little touchy-feely, as you can see. It's kinda been going on for a few chapters hasn't it (as of last chapter)? Well I can tell you now that there's going to be more hehehe...**

**And a thing I learned. I hadn't been sure, b****ut I know now that Ryou is actually Bakura's first name. But even so, for my purposes I'm going to pretend that it's his last name because I can!  
Anyway, I think I'm going to go back and change Bakura's name to Ryou just because. But I'd rather not so let me know if you guys want me to.  
Then again, I don't have to cuz I can!**

**Whatever.**

**Anyway, sorry about the long update time. **

* * *

**Okay now...  
*dims the lights*  
*goes into the closet*  
*comes out with 3 plates of food* (one has pizza, one has tacos, and the third has cookies)  
*sets them on a table that is lighted slightly*  
*takes a cookie*****  
*hides behind a couch*  
"Hhehehe..."  
*waits for him to get lured***

* * *

Bonus scene!  
ENJOY~!

Kuriby hears light breathing. He looks over at his owner, who is finally asleep.

He waits five minutes, just to be sure.

After five minutes, he picks up the Kuriboh card, jumps up on the bedside table, and places it on top of the chain thing.

Then he walks over to Bakura and gently jumps on his head. Gently enough to not wake him up.

He makes himself comfortable, settles down, and falls asleep as well.

* * *

**Hope you liked the cute little bonus scene!**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	10. 9,5: The Prank Aftermath

**Hello, you peoples!**

**This isn't really a chapter, it's just a little bonus scene for you all to watch (oh fail, I meant read) while waiting for the next chapter to come out. **

**It takes place sometime after Marik and Bakura leave the mall, and on the same day.**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Joey and Yugi are playing Duel Monsters on the empty school roof. They are using the duel disks from Battle City, but playing by the typical rules. Whatever they are.

"...and then I summon the Flame Swordsman in attack mode!" Joey says. "And then I place one card face down and end my turn."

"Well I summon my Kuriboh!" Yugi says. He places a card down. Joey's eyes widen as Yugi summons the... um... monster. "And then-"

"Erm... Yug? Your 'monster'," he says pointing to the thing that was just summoned.

Yugi looks at it and is shocked by the monstrosity before his eyes. The creature he had summoned was the same size as Kuriboh, but it wasn't fluffy-looking at all. And it was yellow. And pointy.

The thing looks at Yugi, just as surprised as he is. "Pika, pika?" it asks.

* * *

As they walk back inside the game shop, Yugi says, "I still don't know how a Pokémon got inside of my deck."

"Like I said, Yug, I think you shoulda checked first before you put cards in your deck."

Grandpa is behind the counter listening to the two. He looks next to him. Somehow, he hadn't noticed Yugi's empty card pack. He picks it up and looks at it suspiciously. He notices that something isn't quite right with it. He then notices the sticker on the front. The material of the pack makes it easy to peel off.

Underneath is a Pokémon card pack. "What the devil?" he wonders. He knows that the only other store in town that actually still sells Pokémon cards is the one at the mall...

"Yugi!" he shouts. "Have you been shopping at the toy store in the mall again?!"

"No! I-" he lies.

"What are you trying to do?! Run me out of business?! And on top of that, you fall for a stupid sticker prank!"

"Sticker prank? What sticker prank?"

"This one!" Grandpa holds up the Pokémon card wrapper and the peeled off sticker. "How could my own grandson, how could a Muto, that the world knows as the King of Games, fall for a prank played on card pack?! What is this world coming to?!"

"Grandpa! Calm down!"

"Later, Yug." Joey escapes very quickly.

"Joey you asshole!" Yugi yells after him. "Come back and help me escape the rage that my grandpa has due to my betrayal!" But Joey is already gone. "_Hey Pharaoh, you can Mind Crush him later if you want,"_ he says in his mind to Yami.

_"YEEEEEESSSSS!"_ Yami says back. Yugi never lets him Mind Crush people if he could help it.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed that bonus scene, as well as the little bonus scene at the end of the previous chapter.**

**Also, a note for all of you. I will be referring to Ryou as Bakura and Yami Bakura as Yami Bakura. However, in a certain chapter later on, I will refer to Ryou as Ryou again and refer to Yami Bakura as just Bakura. You'll see when we get there.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEEEEEE~!**


	11. 10: An Interesting Walk Home

**Back with the thieves again!**

**Sorry for he long wait, been doing stuff and working on the other story. The chapters will be a little longer than usual from now on. [EDIT: Sorry about that. I accidentally submitted it but forgot to save the last few sentences. I fixed it up now.]**

**Also, if anyone wants to be that angry fangirl that randomly attacked Marik from a few chapters ago, review and I'll fix up the chapter. I kinda sorta need to fix them all. Very badly.**

**A quick recap: Marik helps Bakura recall that he had thrown the Change of Heart card at Marik the previous day, and that Kuriby had picked it up after. So Bakura decides to go home and look for it. But before he does, Kuriby scratches Marik yet again. Then, as he tries to scratch Marik once more, Bakura blocks the attack with his arm. Since they are both injured, Bakura invites Marik back to his apartment to get their wounds treated. Bakura finds out that he has the address of the hotel Marik is staying at, and Marik goes back. Bakura finds his card and makes plans to buy stuff for Kuriby the next day.**

**Also, in the bonus chapter, the first victim of Marik's card prank is found: Yugi Muto. His grandfather gets mad at him, and Joey escapes. The Yugi gives Yami permission to Mind Crush Joey later.**

**Now a few quick notes: I am now fully aware that Bakura's name is actually Ryou Bakura, meaning "Bakura" is his last name and not his first. However, for my purposes, I'm making it so that it's switched around and his last name is Ryou instead. I'd have to go back and change waaaaayy too much stuff and I'd have to fix all of the chapters and it's too much. So for the entire thing, his first name is Bakura and his last name is Ryou.  
Secondly, I now know that thiefshipping is only Marik Ishtar and Yami Bakura, so please disregard any comment I made about that before.  
Thirdly, I must tell all of you that I am grateful for every single review. It fills my heart with joy and it encourages me as a writer. Also, every review for a story I thought I had forgotten about reminds me to keep on going. So basically, the more reviews and favorites and follows I get, the more I remember to keep writing. Thanks to all of you.  
**_I'm surprised that we are still _getting_ reviews. 20? How the hell did we get 20 reviews?  
The things that people consider entertaining these days...  
*shakes head*_  
_And where is my money? Come on! At least _one_ of you pathetic Marik fangirls must have bet against me a few chapters ago!  
Also I'm still bored. If I'm not getting money, at least give me some food.  
I feel like ripping somthing apart with my teeth right now...  
Mmmm...  
_**I'll just go back and fix everything. Maybe... I don't know. We'll see... Cuz I have to fix spelling and word errors and other bullpoopy and stuff. I'll do it later. Not much will change in the actual story, but the ANs will be edited and some obvious errors will be fixed.**

**Urgh!**

**Anyway...**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Marik woke up to the sound of his alarm clock. He grogily hit the snooze button and sat up in bed.

_What am I going to do today?_ he wondered. _I wish I knew. Maybe I should have considered planning something besides hanging out with Bakura. I could always carry out my sock drawer plan..._

He got out of bed and started getting ready for breakfast.

He continued thinking to himself as he did._ No, that wouldn't work. Bakura is the better thief. I'd totally get caught. And then it would be ruined. Maybe I could just stay here and start planning the next council meeting. No that's just boring. Hehe. I'm such a genius that it would take barely any time at all to think of something. And then I would be bored._

Marik stopped what he was doing and looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. "Oh my gosh I _am_ bored! What am I doing here? Maybe I could g-"

o/' Song o/'

Marik cut his sentence short when he heard his cell phone ring.

He exited the bathroom and went to go pick it up. He looked at the name.

It was his sister.

"Oh great!" he said. He answered the call. "Hello, Ishizu, what do you want?"

{"You are at the Toky-Cari Suites hotel in Japan, as I predicted, correct?"}

Marik sighed into the cell. "No, sis. I'm at the Toky-Cari Suites hotel in Japan, as I _told_ you I would be. And why the [EFF!] are you calling me? I told you not to call me while I'm being evil! Why do you never listen to me when I tell you that?!"

{"Because shut up."}

Marik narrowed his eyes. "Great comeback. So why the hell are you calling me?"

{"I predicted that you will want to go to the pet store today."}

"Why the [EFF!] would I go to the [EFF!]ing pet store. I don't [EFF!]ing need to be around all of those pets and stuff! Did you _predict _something more important than that?"

Marik had the tendency to be bitchy and assholey to Ishizu when he was "being evil" as he called it. It was similar to the way he treated Odion in Season 2.

{"I did, actually,"} Ishizu replied. {"Someone of importance to you will be there."}

"Well guess what? I don't care!"

{"I also predict that Yami Bakura will try to sell Ryou's kitten, Kuriby."}

_Wait a minute, how does she know about the evil kitty? Unless..._

"Oh my holy frigging Ra, Ishizu! You're so awesome! Thanks, sis! Love you! Mmwah!" Marik blew his sister a kiss through the phone and then hung up.

* * *

On the other side of the line, Ishizu hears Marik hang up his cell phone.

She hangs up as well. "Even though I just helped Marik hook up with Yami Bakura, I still think that thiefshipping is dumb and overrated. Why the hell would a tombkeeper be in love with a tomb robber?"

She pauses as she has a vision. "I will be safe, because I predict that I will not get many angry revises from fangirls of thiefshipping."

She looks directly at all of you. "Also, I predict that the authoress' trap will work."

* * *

**~Meanwhile~**

* * *

Bakura opened his eyes and woke up. The first thing he did was subconsciously check his chest. Then he remembered that the Millenium Ring was still nailed to the wall. It must be a record for the longest he's gone without his evil side taking over.

He tried to recall yesterday's events as he usually did and found nothing unusual, meaning no random crimes committed and no memory gaps.

He yawned. He was about to pick up his head when he noticed a weight on his head.

"Hm?" He reached up to touch the weight and was greeted by a quiet 'mew'

"Kuriby! What the bloody hell are you doing on my head?"

Bakura lifted the small kitten off of his head with two hands and looked at him. Kuriby stared back at him with adorable eyes. "My hair's not _that_ soft, is it?"

"_Mew._" Apparently that meant yes.

_How does he know what that stupid feline is saying?_  
_This whole "cat look-alike" idea was and is a bunch of bullsh*t.  
_But he's cute! She's brilliant!_  
__I swear that if you show up here one more time I am going to murder you. Go away!__  
_*sniffles*  
*leaves*_  
__Honestly how does he even get in here?!_

"Aw, you adorable thing! Give me a few minutes and I'll give you some breakfast, alright?"

Kuriby mewed in agreement and squirmed out of Bakura's hands. He jumped on the floor and sat in the spot he had slept the night before last night.

Bakura got out of bed and quickly brushed his teeth and washed his face and stuff. Then he returned to his room and told Kuriby to follow him.

The white adorable fuzzball followed.

* * *

Bakura got two small bowls out, filled one with canned tuna and the other with milk and set it down on the floor. As Kuriby went over and started eating, Bakura poured himself some cereal and began eating as well.

**(AN: Obviously, the two most adorable things in the world are an eating kitty and an eating Ryou. Ryou fangirls and fans of cute, enjoy!)**

When Kuriby was done eating, he jumped up on Bakura's lap and started purring.

_Oh my. If he gets any cuter than this, I think I might have a heart attack!_ "Kuriby! Stop doing cute things or you'll give me a bloody heart attack!"

"_PrrrrrrrrMewPrrrrrrrr._" Translation: I am adorable so I don't care.

Bakura sighed and petted Kuriby as he continued eating.

While he was petting Kuriby, Bakura noticed the bandage on his arm. He remembered Kuriby's little incident yesterday with Marik in the alleyway.

_I really do hope neither of us got an infection from it_, he thought.

* * *

When he was done, he picked up Kuriby and headed back to his room.

While Kuriby explored under his bed, Bakura changed his clothes. When he was done, he bend down and peeked under his bed. The kitten looked at Bakura with shiny eyes. He was lying on top of a piece of paper.

"Huh? Come on out of there." Bakura reached under and slid the paper, kitten and all, out from under the bed. He picked Kuriby up and moved him aside. Then he gasped when he saw what the paper was. "Oh thank you, Kuri! I've been loooking for this! Good kitty!"

Kuriby mewed in delight as Bakura pet him. He jumped on the bed, then from there on Bakura's head. He kneaded his paws in Bakura's hair and then put his head down.

Bakura smiled up at him. Then he stood up. When he did, an object on the nightstand next to his bed caught his eye. It was chain he had bought for the Millenium Ring yesterday.

Bakura frowned and looked over at the Ring. It was still nailed to the wall. He originally had no intention of removing it. However...

He still had the receipt, and he needed to make sure it was the right size.

He reluctantly went back to the closet with the toolbox and took out the hammer again. Kuriby decided that he didn't want to be on Bakura's head while he was working, so he hopped off.

Bakura began removing all the nails, making sure they came out perfect and straight.

He continued doing this until there was only one left. The one that was driven though the hole on top, where he usually hung it from. Bakura stared back and forth between that one nail and the hammer in his hands.

He briefly put the hammer down so he could retrieve the neck chain and set it in front of him. Then he picked up the hammer again and wedged he nail-remover between the nail and the Ring. He stuck his tongue out a bit as he carefully wedged the nail out of the wall nice and straight.

_Looks like I'll be leaving soon, hehehehehe..._  
_Wait a minute, is that food at the end of the chapter? I _am_ getting kinda hungry. Maybe there's pizza and tacos?_  
_Mmmmmmmm..._  
_*licks lips and walks away*_

Finally, the nail came out and it and the Millenium Ring fell to the floor. Bakura stared them, then picked up the nail first and set it on the table next to the hammer and the other nails.

Kuriby watched tensely from where he sat as Bakura hesitantly bent down and touched the ring with his fingertips. It felt cooler than usual, probably because he hadn't worn it in awhile.

He picked it up. He stared at it for a while before refocusing on his task. He took picked up the chain and strung it through the hole in the top of the ring. Then he picked up the sides of the necklace and clasped them together behind his neck.

Bakura felt the coldness of the Ring though his shirt. It was kinda creepy.

He saw that the chain held. He moved over to a mirror on the wall and checked how it looked. The silver-colored chain didn't really match the golden color that all Millenium items had, but it didn't matter. It was good enough.

Bakura quickly removed the chain from around his neck before the evil Bakura could emerged and take over. He let the Ring fall to the floor as he, for and unknown reason, re-clasped the chain.

Bakura took only four nails from the pile this time. Now that he knew his method worked and the chain was just right, he could lighten up the guard on the Ring and put fewer nails on it.

Bakura picked up the Ring and held it up to its original position on the wall. He nailed the four nails in the holes left by the other nails: all of them were inside the circle, two of them under the bottom corners of the triangle and the other two hugging either side of the top corner of the triangle. Originally, he had also driven nails through each of the rings that the five prongs hung from, one in the hole on top, and two more on the other sides of the bottom two angles. That was a total of twelve. Now there only four.

Bakura stared at it. "Hmmmm... Maybe I should...?"

As an extra precaution, he added two more nails to the corners of the triangle, making a total of six.

"Perfect!" Bakura exclaimed as he stepped back and examined the Millenium Ring that he had once again nailed to the wall.

"_Mew?_"

Bakura recalled that Kuriby was there and suddenly remembered the plans he had made for today.

"Oh, right. Sorry Kuri! Give me a few minutes, alright?"

Kuriby nodded and decided to go and explore the rest of the place. He left the room, and Bakura trusted that he wouldn't do anything bad or hurt himself.

He got the stuff he needed: his keys, the money, cell phone, and stuff. And now that he had found the Change of Heart, he also took his deck with him.

He was starting to be like Yugi with it, except Bakura doesn't challenge someone to a card game every ten minutes.

He drew the top card and looked at it. He thought of Marik, who had told him that Kuriby had picked it up after Bakura had thrown it at him.

"Thanks, Marik," he said aloud and he put the card back.

Then he put the deck in his deckholder belt and put it on.

Okay, so he really _was_ a lot like Yugi with his deck. At least not with dueling habits.

"Kuriby! Ready to go!" Bakura called from the door.

Kuriby came running from the kitchen. Bakura sat on the floor and let Kuriby jump on his head and relax.

Then Bakura opened the door, stepped out and locked the door behind him, then left the building.

* * *

Marik had decided to actually walk to the pet store instead of taking his motorcycle. Yesterday, he and Ryou had used it. Not that it had anything to with anything now, but it was just that Marik wanted to give the thing a break. It always seemed like Bakura was terrified of riding it. But what did that have to do with anything?

It didn't. Did it?

Bakura hated riding motorcycles, Ryou didn't.

Well at least he had another way to differentiate the two.

Marik knew where it was because he and Bakura had once switched up some of the hamsters and guinea pigs and gerbils as a prank. Bakura had dragged him out because he had wanted to buy a dog named Steve but Bakura kept saying, "Marik, we are _not_ buying Joey."

Good times...

Marik walked to te pet store, wondering if Ryou or Bakura really WOULD be there. Ishizu's information _seemed_ credible enough. After all, there was no possible way she could have known about Kuriby, who Marik knew that Ryou must have found only two days ago, without having seen him in a vision.

At the moment, Marik was feeling kind of stupid for not having taken his motorcycle. Not only was it more convenient, but it was funny and entertaining when he made fun of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's with it. (What he did was he put one of the old Duel Monsters boards that hardly anyone ever used anymore on the seat then kneel next to it holding his cards and shout, "Look at me! I'm from 5D's! Card games on motorcycles, Jack! Card games on motorbikes, Syrus!") But mostly, he was realizing that it would have been more convenient. So why didn't he take it?

Maybe because he though he would see Bakura today, and Bakura hates the thing.

_WHY THE [EFF!]ING FRIG is everything in my mind revolving around Bakura lately?!_ he wondered. _What the effing frig!_

Marik lightly slapped himself in the face and kept walking.

_Maybe because Ryou kinda looks like him? Same hair, skin, and eye color, same clothes, same frigging body. I think. Same deck, same home... The only differences are personality, hairstyle, and facial expression. And maybe dueling skills and knowledge..._

Marik continued pondering the differences and similarities between the two. He also wondered how he hadn't realized right away who Ryou was. Maybe it was because Bakura only _pretended_ to be him and never actually let Ryou take over when Marik was there.

Or maybe he was just as unobservant as Bakura said he was...

_Now that I think about it, there was that one time in Battle City when Bakura really _did_ release Ryou to make the Pharaoh not want to attack him... But I didn't actually _see_ Ryou because he had fallen in pain. And I told Bakura to do it..._

_Oh my Ra! I'm such a bad person! Wait what?_

Well Marik _was_ evil, so he did do it out of evilness in order to help Bakura win. But now that he had met Ryou and hung out with him for a day, he was starting to feel guilty about it.

"Oh great, now I'm going all soft for Ryou too?! What is it with me and liking British guys!" Marik paused when he realized the meaning of what he said. Which he didn't want to admit. "...as friends! It must be the accent. Maybe."

_But Bakura isn't British, his host is._

"Shut up, you frigging conscience!" Marik shouted at his head and pointed at it.

_One, I'm not _trying _to be your conscience, I'm trying to be the smart one. And two, YOU KNOW ITS TRUUUUEEEEEE~!_

"Shut up, mind!"

_You shut up! Don't make me get Melvin out!_

"You wouldn't dare!"

_Watch me! He'll hug your soul!_

"No he won't!"

_He'll hug Ryou, then._

"Noooo! Frig you and your frigging hugs from your frigging Melvin! You wouldn't dare!"

_Okay you're right I wouldn't._

"Ha! That's what I thought!"

_You do realize you're arguing with yourself out loud in the middle of the street, right?_

Marik stopped talking and looked around. He had stopped walking and some of the people around him were giving him hard stares like he was insane.

Marik glared at them. "What the [EFF!] are you [EFF!]tards [EFF!]ing looking at?!" he yelled.

Everyone immediately ignored and turned away from him in surprise and fear (of his insanity). Some also moved farther away from him.

"That's what I thought..." Marik mumbled as he kept walking.

He realized he was close now. He must have moved a lot nearer than he realized while he was arguing with himself.

_Thanks self! You successfully distracted me from my boredom while I walked!_

_You're welcome!_

Marik mentally gave himself a high-five.

After one last block, he had found it.

"At _laaast_! The local pet store! I am finally here!" Marik cried out in a tone of voice similar to the one he had used in Leather Pants to say he had finally obtained the Pharaoh's pants.

The whole trip had taken him about...

Marik looked at his wrist. He tried to check the time, but didn't have a watch.

Oh well.

He assumed that it had been about twenty minutes or more. It probably would have been less if he had taken his frigging motorcycle.

He stood in front of the store for about five seconds, checking to see if Ryou was there, before realizing that he wasn't.

_Maybe I got here first? Only one way to find out..._ Marik walked inside and tried not to get recognized by someone working there.

_Why do I care so much about what they're doing?_ Marik wondered for about the fifth time that morning.

* * *

Bakura was walking down the street to the pet store. As he walked, he decided that after he got some stuff, he would make an appointment with the vet for Kuriby. Thought he seemed like a fine and heathy kitten, for all Bakura knew he could have some dormant disease or some sort of parasite. And he needed shots and stuff like that.

Bakura would drop off the pet store stuff at home, then head back out.

After walking for a while, the pet store walked into sight.

He was about to cross the street when he suddenly remembered something he did there once. He remembered going inside and switching up some of the similar-looking animals as a prank and telling someone they couldn't buy Joey.

Wait, what? When did that happen? Bakura didn't actually remember ever doing that. Yet here he was, recalling a memory for doing it.

Maybe he had hit his head afterwards and forgotten about it? But it didn't seem like the kind of thing he would do. He loved animals and wouldn't do something like that. Would he?

Maybe it was a suppressed memory of some sort?

Bakura was brought back to reality by two sounds: Kuriby meowing loudly at him and some random stranger saying, "Hey, kid. You gonna cross? The sign says walk."

"Huh?" Bakura shook his head and refocused on his surroundings. "Oh thanks..." He quickly ran across the street.

Bakura suddenly had the urge to skip the pet store and go to the vet first instead.

For some reason, the random memory and the walking reminded of Marik. Bakura wondered if he would run into Marik again today. It had happened yesterday and the day before. Bakura hoped he wouldn't. But he didn't know why he hoped that.

He walked inside and started browsing for stuff for Kuriby. Kuriby helped as well.

Bakura randomly thought of the two of them as father and son, shopping for school. He laughed at the thought. It was funny because obviously Bakura wasn't related to Kuriby in any possible way and also because school wasn't in session at the time. But it was still an interesting analogy.

One particular item Bakura debated over buying in his mind was a cat bed. Kuriby had already show interest in sleeping on the floor and Bakura's head, so would he want his own bed to sleep in?

Bakura might be able to make it work if the bed was fluffy enough.

"What do you think, Kuri?" Bakura said to Kuriby, indicating a cat bed with a very fluffy lining.

Kuriby made a noise that somehow sounded like a "no".

"Oh well then... I tried." The one he had indicated was the softest one there. Anything else was a step down.

Bakura moved on.

Within half an hour, Bakura had selected a number of necessities, such as a brush and kitten food. As he walked to pay for his stuff, he thought he saw someone familiar out of the corner of his eye. He didn't get a good look, but he was sure that the person had hair that was some sort of blond.

He figured that it might be Joey, and didn't investigate further or find it suspicious.

He paid for his stuff with the money he had brought, glad that he had enough, and began to exit.

The bags were heavier than he expected them to be, which was weird because he had been carrying this same stuff just moments ago _to_ the checkout counter. Maybe it was just that the bag handles were digging into his hands.

He hadn't bought a lot of stuff; some of the stuff was heavy.

As he walked out, he passed the familiar looking person again. This time, Bakura actually turned his head for a glance. Then he did a double-take when he realized who it was. The guy had his back to Bakura, but Bakura knew who he was nonetheless.

"Marik?"

* * *

Marik had been browsing the store while he waited for Ishizu's prediction to come true. He had been in the store for five minutes before noticing something on a rack. It appeared to be a headband with cat ears for a person to wear.

_What the frig is wrong with this country?_ Marik wondered. _Why would they sell cat ears in a frigging pet store?!_

He decided to buy one anyway. He would slip it on Bakura when he was sleeping, then take a picture. There were _soooo_ many things Marik could do with that.

He pictured how the ears would look on Bakura. But his bunny ear hair in the front might cover it. But it might not.

Then he pictured how it might look on Ryou, who didn't have such bunny ear hair and whose hair was much more relaxed.

Marik immediately shook away the latter of the two thoughts. He had no reason to be thinking of Ryou at the moment. Also, if he put kitty ears on Ryou, Ryou's fangirls might get excited and try to stampede their way through the Fourth Wall to glomp his adorableness. Which wouldn't be good at all. Ishizu and Shadi would gang up on him and yell at him about it.

Marik decided to get a black kitty ears headband because it would stand out against Bakura's hair and it would look more adorable that way.

He had it in his hand and was about to head for the checkout counter to buy it when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Marik?"

* * *

Marik turned around and saw Ryou and his evil kitten looking at him. Ryou was holding four bags that looked heavy and were filled with cat stuff.

"What are you doing here?" Ryou asked him.

"Uh..." _Crap in a bucket! What do I tell him?!_

"Are you stalking me or something?"

"No! I-"

"Not that I mind seeing you here, but it seems more than coincidental that I would run into you three days in a row. _Are_ you stalking me?"

"Well-"

"I guess karma has come back to bug me since I once stalked Yugi and his friends for about four episodes in Duelist Kingdom, but I never realized that you of all people would be following me...". Bakura stopped talking once he realized that he had interrupted Marik several times. And then he thought of a possible reason why Marik was here. "Marik... Your sister is psychic, right? And are you following me because you want to see-"

"Oh my frigging gosh, Ryou!" Marik hastily interjected. "Let me frigging talk for one friggin minute for Ra's sake!"

Bakura stopped talking and pulled his mouth into a tight line.

"Thank you." _That was close_, Marik thought. _I don't want him to think that I'm stalking him or anything... Even though... I am..._ "So what are you doing here?"

Bakura saw right through Marik's change in subject, but went along with it. "Way to change the subject..." he muttered. "Well I'm getting some stuff from Kuriby. I'm keeping him."

"Bakura will probably sell him when he gets out though," Marik unknowingly said aloud. He looked at the stuff in Ryou's hands. "That looks kind of heavy. You gonna carry that all the way home?"

Ryou nodded. "Yup!" He smiled cheerfully. "I can handle it!"

'How does he handle it?!'

"How in the name of frig do you manage walking everywhere?" Marik asked. "Don't you have a bike or scooter or something like that?" Bakura had mentioned once that he owned a bicycle that he never used.

"Yes, I have a bike," Ryou told him. "But I don't use it often. Only when I'm going somewhere really far. Like school or farther. And obviously I can't carry this stuff while riding it. I'd get myself killed or something!"

Marik looked at the bags. They seemed pretty heavy, and Marik wanted to talk to Ryou more for some reason. So he asked, "You need help carrying those?"

Bakura looked at Marik in surprise. Somehow, he knew that it was probably out of character for Marik to offer to help someone with something. He was getting kind of suspicious. "What's in it for you?" he asked.

Marik looked offended. Or pretended to at least. "What?! Why would there have to be something in it for me? I'm just helping a friend!"

Bakura didn't buy it. He wasn't as gullible as he looked. He may be somewhat of a spaz (actually he was _very_ much a spaz and today was simply one of his better days), but at least he wasn't gullible. He guessed that Marik wanted something from him. But what?

The answer came to him immediately. His Yami. Marik wanted to see the other Bakura again. But Bakura wasn't going to let that happen. He wanted to see if he could go a whole week without his darker side coming out. It was day three, and things were going good.

Not that he was going to refuse Marik's offer to help, but he wasn't going to give him Yami Bakura in return.

"Fine," he said with a sigh. "Here." Bakura handed Marik the two bags in his left hand, the heavier ones.

"Argh!" Marik cried in protest. "Why does it seem like this stuff is heavier than it actually weighs?" he asked.

Ryou shrugged and moved one of the bags from his right hand to his left hand. "It's strange, isn't it?"

"This city is weird."

"Yup."

Marik looked at the kitty ears still in his hand. Who needs money? He was a thief.

He stuffed it into one of the bags in his hand and moved that bag to the hand that formerly held the kitty ears.

The two walked out of the store and started heading for Ryou's home.

When they were a few feet away from the store, Bakura turned to Marik. "Marik I noticed you stuff something into one of my bags. What was it and why did you put it in there?"

Marik smirked and looked back at the store. "Kitty ears," he said proudly. "I stole them."

Bakura didn't know whether to be more concerned about the theft or confounded about the stolen item. He decided to ask about the latter first. "Marik, what the bloody hell would you want kitty ears for?"

Marik looked away from Ryou's gaze. "Ehhhh... Just because..." _Please ask something else please ask something else please ask something else_, Marik frantically thought.

He had noticed that Ryou had a tendency to ask multiple questions at once and not really care about the answers to the earlier ones as long as the later ones were answered.

"And why would you steal it?"

_Yes! Another question!_ "Because I'm a thief. And a criminal. Maybe. Because I'm evil! That's why!" But Marik didn't _feel_ evil at the moment. He just felt like a bad boy because he stole one little thing from a pet store.

"You don't seem evil to me. You just seem like a really strange and creepy person." Ryou covered his mouth and gasped. "Oh I'm sorry! I didn't mean that!"

Marik waved away the apology. "Whatever. It's fine. I'm used to it. We both are. We're both thieves. That's probably why it's called thiefshipping."

Marik gasped very loudly and stopped walking.

Did he just say what he think he just said? No it couldn't be... He wasn't... He didn't... He isn't...

Bakura noticed Marik gasp and stop walking. "Marik?" he asked. Marik was staring straight ahead and appeared to be in deep thought. Or realization. One or the other. "Marik?" he asked again. "Are you okay?"

Marik snapped out of it. "Of course I'm fine!" he snapped at Bakura. "I just suddenly worried that I left the light and sink on in the bathroom in my room!" Bakura stared at Marik disbelieving. "Hehehe..." he nervously laughed.

Bakura decided not to push him for details. "Let's... Keep walking." He turned around and continued walking.

Marik nodded quickly and caught up to him.

* * *

"So Marik, you mumbled something about something shipping earlier." Marik listened warily. Ryou began to talk hesitantly "Do you... by any chance... have any sort of... tattoos that say that word on you?"

Marik halted for a second. "No!" he lied. "Why would you ask that?!"

Bakura blushed and hoped Marik didn't notice. "N-No reason..." So the tattoo mystery wasn't solved yet.

Marik sighed in relief internally. He would never forget that trip to Vegas where he and Bakura got the tattoos that Ryou was probably talking about. Bakura hated to be reminded of it. Ryou had obviously noticed his, which was the one that said "shipping". Marik's was the one that said "thief".

At least he didn't press for further information. That would have been very awkward to talk about.

Marik was about to say something else when he heard a whisper from around the corner.

"_Psst! Blishtar! A clue, a clue_!"

That was the codephrase that meant one of his Steves wanted to talk to him. "Hold on, Ryou," he muttered. "Give me a minute."

He walked over to the Steve in question and started talking.

Bakura hadn't heard and continued walking. "I forgot to tell you that after this I'm-" He turned his head to look at Marik and cut himself off when he saw no one there. "Marik?"

He turned around and saw Marik at the corner. He appeared to be talking to someone who was standing out of sight, behind the corner of the building. Bakura had already walked halfway down the block, so he just stopped and waited for Marik to finish up.

While he was waiting, he heard someone call him from the other side of the block. "Yo, Bakura! Sup?"

It was Joey.

"How's it goin'?" he asked Bakura.

Bakura's face turned neutral when he talked to Joey. "Fine. What is it?"

"What, I gotta have a reason to say hi? You're my friend." He lowered his voice. "Well you're a friend of Yugi, so I guess I gotta be nice to ya."

Bakura smiled. "That's the Joey I know."

"Shut up, Kitty."

"Shut up, Furry.

The guy with the Brooklyn accent and the guy with the British accent stared at each other. (Neither of them would ever tell anyone, but they'd once had an argument over which was the accent started with the letter B for "best" or B for "bad". Neither of them had won.) They stared so hard that one could practically see their accents having a staring contest.

Finally, both of them softened their expressions. Joey decided to pass the warning that he had on to Bakura. "By the way, don't buy any Duel Monsters cards at the toy store in the mall anymore. Someone pranked the place with Duel Monsters and Pokémon card pack stickers. They made the Duel Monsters cards look like Pokémon and the Pokémon cards look like Duel Monsters. Yugi got in trouble yesterday cuz his grandpa found out about it and realized that Yugi had been shopping there."

Bakura tried with all his might not to laugh. He kept a straight face and said, "I didn't even know the mall had that store. And I won't buy from there. Sorry about Yugi and his grandfather."

"Yeah..." Joey decided to end the conversation before they started arguing again. "Well, see you later, Limey Kitty." He waved and started to walk away.

"Bye bye, Brooklyn Puppy," Bakura said as he waved back.

Joey glanced behind Bakura before he left. "Oh by the way, Marik is right over there." He pointed.

As Joey walked away, Bakura looked back at Marik, who seemed to have finished his conversation and was walking towards him.

When Marik caught up, they both continued walking. "Was that Joey?" Marik asked.

"Yup." Bakura let out a bit of that laugh he had been holding in.

"What did he want?"

"He wanted to say hi and warn me about the Pokémon and Duel Monsters card-sticker prank at the toy store at the mall."

"Really?" Marik asked with a smile.

Bakura smiled back. "Yup. Yugi got in trouble because his grandfather found out about it. And we all know that no where else still sells Pokémon stuff anymore."

Both of them started laughing at the success of the prank.

"Haha!" Marik laughed. "They're all idiots!"

The laughter died down and Bakura remembered that Marik had stopped to talk to someone. "So what was that all about?" he asked. "A few minutes ago?"

"Oh that guy I was talking to? One of my Steves. He had a message for me."

"Your Steves?" Bakura repeated questioningly.

"Oh, my Millenium Rod lets me mind control people named Steve." Ryou stared open-mouthed at Marik with a mixture of confusion and horror. "Remember how you ran away from me two days ago? There were like three or four people named Steve who were watching us. I used the Millenium Rod to make them go away. One of my Rare Hunters informed me that one of them wanted to join us. I told him I'd meet her at some later date." Marik looked over at Ryou and noticed his facial expression. "Why the frig are you looking at me like that?" Marik asked quickly.

Ryou closed his mouth and shook off the shock. "Does it work only on people named Steve?" he asked.

"Yes. Why?" Marik noticed that Ryou had said "people" and not "guys", and didn't question the fact that the new Rare Hunter was female. Was that even important? "It works on guys _and_ girls called Steve."

"What's with the emphasis on the 'and'? It's pretty obvious that it works on both genders."

"Really?" Marik asked in genuine surprise. "It isn't weird to you that some of them are girls named Steve?"

Ryou shook his head. "No. Not to me. After all, my Yami is named Florence. Who names a boy 'Florence'?" Ryou imitated Bakura's voice. "Idiots, that's who." He changed his voice back to normal and continued speaking. It's not something that I'm not used to hearing about."

"Oh. Wait what?" Ryou knew that Bakura's name was Florence? How did he know that?

Now was not the time to ask.

"Speaking of him..."

Bakura groaned internally. He knew where Marik was probably going to go with this. He braced himself.

"I wish would like to see him again. I have something to tell him. Also he owes me money because I won a bet."

Bakura could see that Marik was trying to get him to let out the other Bakura. But that wasn't going to happen. Not today. Not gonna happen. No bloody way. The Millenium Ring was at home anyway.

Bakura ignored the statement. He looked up and noticed the small roundabout in front of them. They had reached his building.

"Marik, we're here."

"Huh?" Marik looked up as well and saw that they had arrived. His heart sank by a millimeter in disappointment. He hadn't been able to stir up Ryou's curiosity about the "message" Marik had or the "money" from the non-existant "bet" that Bakura owed him. "Oh cool," he said.

"Thanks for helping me, Marik," Ryou said as he took the bags from Marik's hands.

"By the way, I'm going to the vet after I drop this stuff off," Bakura informed Marik. He had meant to mention that earlier, but the Steve person had interrupted their conversation. "You coming with me?"

"Yes," Marik said plainly.

"All right. Be right back. You're staying here."

"You need help bringing the stuff up?" Marik offered.

"No I'm fine."

"And could you please leave your demonic kitten behind?" Marik pointed to the feline lounging on Bakura's head. Kuriby perked up at the mention of him. He hissed at Marik.

Marik hissed back.

"Behave, you two," Bakura said to them.

Kuriby growled a bit, but calmed down. Marik grumbled, "Yeah sure."

"Why would I leave him behind? I need to take him with me. He's the reason why I'm going there."

"Oh," Marik said, probably feeling stupid. "Right. I knew that."

Bakura turned away. "See you in a few, then."

"Kay."

Marik watched Ryou walk away.

It was only when Ryou had disappeared inside the building that Marik remembered something in one of the bags.

"Oh my [EFF!]ing frig I forgot the freaking cat ears!"

* * *

Bakura had finally reached his front door. He put down the bags so he could unlock the door.

As soon as the door opened and he reached down to pick up the bags again, Kuriby jumped off of his head and ran inside. Seeing the bags and Kuriby at the same time reminded Bakura of something inside one of them.

"Marik's cat ear thing!" he exclaimed.

He quickly carried the bags inside and set them on the table. He left the door slightly ajar but locked the chain lock.

He moved the bags to the kitchen. He emptied them out, searching for the cat ears.

He had already emptied out the two lighter bags before remembering that Marik had put it inside one of the heavier bags that he had carried.

He finally found the item in the last bag.

Bakura picked it up and looked at it. It was just a black headband with fake black cat ears attached to it. It was cute. But why would Marik buy, or steal as the case was, something like this? Who was it for? Marik didn't seem like the kind of person who would wear this.

Could it be for someone else?

Who?

He pushed the thought aside and placed it on the table out of the way. He began to put the stuff away in the various rooms they belonged in.

* * *

~Meanwhile~

* * *

Marik was contemplating whether or not he should call Ryou's cell phone to ask him to bring it down. But he didn't, and he had several reasons why.

1) He didn't know if he had Ryou's number. He had Bakura's, but he wasn't sure if they were the same phone. It was unlikely, because Bakura would definitely not want Ryou's friends calling and texting him. So Bakura probably made sure he had his own number. He would either have to test that out later, or simply ask Ryou what his voicemail message was at the moment.  
2) Ryou would probably remember anyway. So the call would be redundant.  
3) It would probably unsettle Ryou if he found out that Marik had his cellphone number, and received a call from him out of nowhere. It would be just like when Ryou found out that Bakura was using his email account, especially one that Marik knew about, but worse. That wasn't a reaction that Marik wanted, but he had a feeling that something else would bring it about.  
4) He might accidentally drag out the conversation longer than he wanted to by asking about other things. He didn't want to do that, and not over the phone.  
5) He didn't want to waste any time calling. He was probably on his way down now.  
6) He could always just ask Ryou to go back if he didn't bring it.

So Marik refrained from calling. But in order to make the wait less boring, he decided to entertain his mind with random thoughts. Mostly stuff about Steves and card games and Lady Gaga songs.

* * *

"Kuriby!" Bakura called. "Ready to go!"

Surprisingly, Kuriby didn't automatically come running to him like he had last time.

"Kuriby?" Bakura asked out loud. "Where are you?"

He began searching around for the kitten. After about two minutes, he realized where Kuriby would be. Why hadn't he looked there first?

He walked into his room and instantly saw Kuriby on the floor staring at the wall.

"There you are! Time to go."

Kuriby ignored him and kept staring at the wall. He had the same expression on his face that he usually had when he was looking at Marik.

"What are you looking at?" Bakura knelt down next to him and looked at the same spot he was looking at.

He was staring at the Millenium Ring on the wall.

He glanced at Kuriby. He had the same look on his face he had when looking at Marik, but also seemed to hold the same stance.

_Does sense something in the Ring that is similar to whatever he senses in Marik? _he wondered._ No. That's ridiculous. Admitting that is like admitting Tristan is right about the evil-reppelling cat theory. Which is ridiculous. And he is ridiculous. But there's no doubt that both the Spirit of the Millenium Ring and Marik are both evil. Well, Marik... not so much at the moment._

Then he realized that he was supposed to be doing something.

"Kuriby why are you looking at that? Come on. Let's go..."

Bakura was about to pick up Kuriby, but he wasn't there. "Hey!" He turned his head just in time to see a small white blur dart out the door. "Kuri!" He ran after him.

He closed the door behind him.

* * *

The moment he left the room, the nail that was through the top hole of the Millenium Ring mysteriously slid out of the wall and fell to the floor. The Ring glowed for three seconds before fading back to normal again.

* * *

"Kuriby, stop playing around..."

Bakura had finally caught up with his kitten, who was now sitting on the kitchen table, looking innocent. "Come on, we're leaving."

Kuriby said nothing and bent down to his right. He picked up the cat ears headband in his mouth. Then he jumped off the table and ran out with it.

"Kuriby!" Bakura shouted after him. "What has gotten into you?" Although he had only known the kitten for two and a half days, he somehow knew that this behavior was not like him at all.

He slowly walked out of the kitchen and to the door. He was pleased to find Kuriby sitting there calmly. "Kuri..." Bakura knelt down in front of him and held a hand out to the kitten. "Give me the cat ears..."

Kuriby shook his head and slipped outside.

Bakura groaned and unlocked the door, following. He had everything he needed with him already, so it was good that Kuriby had gone outside.

He found the kitten on the stairs, still holding the headband.

Bakura finally understood Kuriby's actions. He simply wanted to carry the item for him, and maybe give it to Marik himself. How nice.

Bakura smiled. "Well, as long as you don't attack Marik again."

"_Mmew_," he agreed. He indicated that he wanted to be picked up and Bakura did so.

Bakura walked down the stairs and headed outside.

* * *

Marik turned around when he noticed the door open in the corner of his eye.

He smiled and watched Ryou approach.

He waved and Ryou waved back. Marik frowned when he saw that Kuriby was in Ryou's arms.

At least he wasn't on Ryou's head, where he could easily attack from at any time without Ryou's interference.

Bakura walked up to Marik. "Well, shall we get going?" he asked.

"Sure, whatever..." He looked like he was about to walk, but stopped as he remembered something. "Oh wait, you have to go back upstairs."

"What? Why?" Bakura asked.

"Because, I forgot to take my stolen item out of one of the bags."

"Oh right, the headband thing! Don't worry, Marik. We-" Bakura was cut off by a sudden movement in his arms.

Kuriby suddenly jumped at Marik. "AHHH!" Marik shouted. He automatically put his hands up to defend himself from the demonic feline. However, instead of feeling the claws he expected, he simply felt Kuriby settle down on the place his arms crossed.

He was holding the black cat ears hin his mouth. And he appeared to be smiling. Somehow.

"As I was about to tell you, Kuriby wanted to be a good little kitty and carry that downstairs for you. He's really trying hard not to attack you again."

Marik looked Kuriby in the eyes. The small white kitten closed his eyes and purred. But it seemed fake... Like he was acting just to fool Ryou.

Marik held his arms out to Ryou. "Here, take him back," he said.

Ryou did, but gave Marik a confused look. "You might want to take your stolen item back," he noted.

"Oh right."

Without warning, Kuriby loosened his jaw and the headband fell out of his mouth.

"Ah! Stupid cat!" Marik shouted as he quickly darted his hand out and bent down to catch it. He caught it just before it hit the ground.

He stood up straight and glared at Kuriby.

"Marik..." Ryou warned. "Calm down..."

"Hmph. Fine whatever."

Kuriby jumped up to Ryou's head again and settled down. Then he glared evilly at Marik. He even stuck his tongue out.

_I've never seen a kitty look that evil_, Marik thought._ I didn't even know they were capable of facial expressions like that. He's cute and fluffy, but evil and crazy. And he likes making people bleed apparently. Kinda like Bakura. They are so similar! His hair is so fluffy! Imagine how much I could bother him about this kitty! Speaking of Bakura..._

Marik looked at Ryou's neck and saw the chain that he had bought yesterday for the Millenium Ring. However, the Ring wasn't there.

"Ryou," Marik said. "Where is the Millenium Ring?" he asked.

Bakura rolled his eyes. _Did he seriously just wonder that?_ he thought. "Well it's certainly not here. I don't know. Where do you think it is?" He pointed to his building, which they had taken only a few steps away from during this whole conversation. "I left it behind. Why do you want to know?" But Bakura was pretty sure that he already knew the answer to that question.

Marik exhaled. Or was that a sigh?

Marik looked back to the building, then to Ryou, then to the kitty ears in his hand. He made a decision.

Marik stood in front of Ryou.

"Ryou..."

"Marik."

"...I want you to get your pale British ass right back upstairs..."

"Marik? Why are-"

"...and come back down wearing the Millenium Ring."

* * *

**YAY CHAPTER!**

**I hope I didn't confuse you this whole time. If you haven't noticed, Ryou thinks of himself as Bakura and Yami Bakura as his yami or just Yami Bakura. Marik thinks of Ryou as Ryou and Yami Bakura as Bakura. This fact should make it easier to tell who's POV it is, which is good because I switch it up often. It's called third person omniscient, if you didn't already figure it out. (I had, I just didn't connect the word for it yet.)**

**Now the thing with next chapter is that Bakura will be refered to as Ryou and Yami Bakura will be referred to as Bakura. Except in their thoughts and other rare and minor exceptions. Okay? Okay.**

**Oh right! I have a job to do...  
*****puts on ninja gloves because they look cool*  
*takes bedpost out from under mattress*  
*walks out***

* * *

_*walks into room*_  
_*sees pizza and tacos*_  
_Yes, free food. Mine._  
_*picks up a slice of pizza in one hand and a taco in the other*_  
_*takes a bite of each alternatively*_

***hears him***

_*finishes eating*_

***jumps out***

_*hears her*_  
_What the bugger?!_  
_*tries to dodge*_

***hits him on the head with a bed post***

_*didn't expect bedpost*  
*is knocked out*_

**MWAHAHAHAHAHA!**  
**I'll investigate you later...**  
***walks out***  
***locks the door from the outside***

* * *

******K I'm back!  
*takes off gloves and puts bedpost away***

******Maybe I'll put in another bonus chapter just for the hell of it. Or maybe not. I haven't decided yet.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEEEE~!**


	12. 11: The Ring Returns

**Sup, my hommies!**

**I actually had this chapter written _before_ I published chapter 8 and before I finished writing chapter 9. I wanted to do something like this scene anyway at some point, and I got the perfect idea of how to do it. Then I went back to finish and publish 8 and 9 and 10. Of course, along the way, I had to change a few things in this chapter and in 10 to make them match up. And also I edit this OpeningAN, and add the recap after I post chapters 8 and 9 and 10. But it should be perfect nonetheless.**

**This is one of those times when I have to secretly publish a chapter at night after I'm supposed to be in bed, so any obvious mistakes and errors in here are ones I didn't get to fix and will probably notice and fix by tomorow night maybe. [EDIT: I was able to do it now, rather than later tonight. Nothing major, just a few ALL CAPS words that I chaNged to _italicized_. And I fixed a sentence of two. It's nothing much so you probably won't notice it. I hope.]**

**So, anyway...**

**A quick recap: Bakura tests out the strength of the chain he had bought by briefly removing the Millenium Ring from the wall. Then he heads to the pet store to buy stuff for Kuriby. Marik runs into him inside the store and offers to help him carry the stuff home. Bakura brings the stuff inside and comes back out to visit the vet. When he does, Marik asks him to go back and get the Millenium Ring.**

**Ok now things will get a little wierd in here. For example, not really much of a spoiler or anything, but I will say that Ryou will somehow manage to (maybe literally) push Bakura around. Which is pretty much unheard of. And also... Well I'll let you see what I mean when you read it, won't I?**

**Also this is the chapter when the word "slipping" is actually said. Be on the lookout for it if you actually care!**

**[Edit: Having caught the insert hacker in the last chapter (see chapter # for name), I was able to see all of his inserts. Apparently he tried to erase this chapter out of embarrassment or something like that. Hehehe... Poor guy. Too bad he never got to do it. Read to see what I mean!]**

**I'll stop talking and let you read now.**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Ryou laughed. "Hahaha... That's funny, Marik. But no. Not going to happen. Ever." He began walking. Marik followed.

"Wha? Why not?" Marik sounded extremely sad and disappointed.

"Because if I do wear it, my Yami will take over. And he's evil. Besides, I'm on a roll here with keeping control of my body."

"Yeah, but I just want to talk to him..."

"Leave a message, then." Ryou started walking faster.

"But it's important!"

"No."

They had already walked down to the corner at this point.

They stayed silent for a while before Marik started talking again.

"PLEASE?!"

"I said _NO_, Marik. I'm not letting the evil me out! Stop bloody asking me!"

"Bakura..."

"Ryou."

"Please?"

"Marik, shut up! Stop bloody asking!" As he said this, Ryou had put his face relatively closer to Marik's so he could yell at him better.

Suddenly, Marik closed his eyes, dropped what he was holding, cupped his hands around Ryou's face, and then lessened the distance.  
Their lips met.

Ryou was taken totally by surprise. He was frozen in place and didn't do anything to end the kiss.

_What the bloody fuck?_  
_That's it! I'm erasing this whole chap-_  
_Wait a minute... What's going on? Where am I goi-_  
_*disappears*_

About five seconds had passed when Ryou suddenly felt something wierd going on with his head. Then a second later, he felt weight being put on the chain around his neck and he felt his mind slipping away.

_No... Yam-_

Marik felt the lips touching his change shape a little.

He opened his eyes. He then became shocked when the eyes looking back at him weren't Ryou's. They were...

Violet stared at brown.  
Brown stared back.

Bakura took only a second to examine the situation and quickly pushed Marik away in surprise.

Marik stared at him, his heart racing with emotions of excitement, surprise, and slight embarrassment. He only needed a split second to realize that this was, in fact, _his_ Bakura.

There was an awkward silence between the two of them. Finally, Marik decided to break it. "So, Bakura. Long time no see, eh? Hehe... Hehehe... He...he," he laughed nervously.

Bakura then shook off the shock and looked at Marik with bewilderment. "Marik, what the bloody hell did you just do?" he shouted. "Did you just..." he blushed at this part, "kiss... my host?"

"Um... Yes?"

"Pretending... It was me?" With every word, his face grew slighly redder.

"Um... Not exactly..."

The two stayed silent for a few more seconds. Bakura tried to lighten and distract from the mood. "And all this time you denied it," he said with a fake smirk. "So you really are-"

"No- I just- that- I - oh frig it!" No point in denying it anymore. His action had given him away. "Yes, Bakura. I _am_ gay. And I _do_ love you." Marik mumbled this last part and blushed when he said it, but his skin tone made it not as noticable as Bakura's blush, which was clearly visible against his light skin.

"Well I guess that-"

Bakura never got to finish his sentence because at that moment, Kuriby jumped off his head. He had forgotten that the stupid cat was there.

Kuriby had noticed the change in his owner and didn't like it. This new Bakura scared him a bit. His voice, his demeanor, and his appearance. It was the same presence he had sensed when he stared at the Ring on the wall earlier. He ran off in fear.

Bakura couldn't care less about the bloody kitten or where it went.

However, someone else _did_ care...

Suddenly, Bakura felt something weird happen in his mind, or more accurately, his mind chamber. He suddenly went off after Kuriby.

Marik was taken by surprise at Bakura's retreat. "Bakura, come back!" he shouted after him.

Bakura then turned his head around to look Marik and shouted, "Not until I catch my kitty!"

Marik had started to follow him, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Bakura's face and heard his voice.

It wasn't Bakura, it was Ryou again.

He stared after Ryou feeling... What? Disappointed?

Yes, disappointed. Marik had finally seen Bakura again, but lost him again seconds later.

This sucked.

* * *

**_~Transition~_**

* * *

A few minutes later, Ryou walked down the block again, this time with Kuriby being petted soothingly in his arms. He walked toward Marik calmly, but looked at Kuriby. When he got closer, he gently put Kuriby down and checked to see it he would run. He didn't.

When he was certain of this, he turned back to Marik and his soft expression changed to one of confusion and slight anger.

As Ryou got closer, Marik prepared himself for a rant either about the kitten, about Bakura, or about the kiss.

"What the bloody hell did you bloody do to me you bloody wanker?!" he shouted. "What did you do to make Kuriby run away from me like that?"

Of course, leave it to Ryou to be concerned for the cat first.

"Well, you see, he just-"

"And why did I lose part of my memory again?!"

"Well I think Bakura-"

"And also, why did you kiss me?!"

Ooh. The stinger. Marik had to explain that very well or else he might pay for it. It was always the quiet ones like Ryou that did the most physical damage when enraged. Marik had to treat the situation delicately.

He didn't want to answer the question, so he just pretended to care about the other questions first. "Whoa, whoa, whoa there! Slow down B- um, Ryou," he caught himself, "one thing at a time please! Now what was your question again?"

"Why did you kiss me?"

_Crap in a bucket not _that _one!_ "No, the other one, the one about your memory..."

"But I want to know why-"

"I think it's because," he started, cutting Ryou off, "Bakura came out for a little bit."

That temporarily stopped Ryou from pushing that _other_ matter for a while. "He- I- What?"

"Look around your neck."

"Huh?" Ryou looked down. There he saw, with great shock, that the Millenium Ring had returned. And it was hanging from the chain he had bought just recently.

Marik had noticed that when Bakura had returned, the Ring had returned with him.

"I... Bloody buggering hell thought I had him nailed." Literally. "I probably should have taken the chain off..."

Then he snapped his attention away from the Ring. "Now why did my kitten run away from me like that?! What did you do to him?!"

"B- Ryou," he caught himself again, "I didn't do anything. Maybe it just didn't like Bakura?"

Ryou considered it. "I suppose that makes sense."

"Yes it does. Okay, that's enough questions for today see you tomorrow BYE!" Marik said as he turned away to leave, even though he actually wanted to stay.

"Not so fast you wanker!" Ryou said menacingly behind him. He grabbed Marik's arm tightly to stop him from leaving.

Marik turned back to him and looked at his face. And he was scared of what he saw.

A pure, yet very rare case of British Rage. Rare even more so for Ryou. It was even more powerful than Brooklyn Rage or Egyptian Rage.

Then, the expression changed from rage to shyness and embarrassment. "So tell me, Marik. Why did you kiss me?"

Marik _really_ didn't want to answer that. And of all people, not to Ryou. But he wouldn't be left alone if he didn't. So he had to.

"I did it... because..." Marik sighed and turned away from him. "I missed him. Also I got tired of you."

Ryou felt he had finally realized how Marik felt towards his other self. "So you kissed _me_... because you love the _other_ me... And wanted to draw him back?" He completely ignored the fact that Marik had said he was tired of him.

His back still to Ryou, Marik nodded hesitantly.

Ryou looked at Marik with a kindhearted expression. Then he looked down at the Millenium Ring and made a decision.

He then remembered the kitty at his feet. He led him over to the alleyway nearby and settled him down a few feet in. "You stay here. I'll be right back," he told him.

"_Mew?_" he asked confusedly. _Why?_

"I don't want to scare you into running off again."

And with that, he exited the alleyway and went back to Marik.

During Ryou's pause, Marik had been thinking about what he had just done. He probably had driven Ryou away for doing that, and he also probably lost any respect and/or trust that Bakura had for him.

Maybe.

"Hey, Marik," came a voice from behind.

"What?" Marik said rather harshly as he turned around.

"I want to give you something. Well two somethings actually," Ryou said as he approached him.

"And what would those be?"

Ryou got as close to Marik as he had before when he was yelling at him. "Here's the first," he said as he grabbed Marik's face in the same way Marik had grabbed his. He then kissed Marik on the lips again.

Marik was taken by surprise, yet again, by Ryou's actions.

When Ryou was sure that Marik was kissing back, he retreated into his mind.

* * *

Ryou walked a bit through the Soul Hallway. He came upon his soul room and looked inside. Vacant.

He looked at the other one. It was closed. He knocked on the door.

"What the bloody hell do you want?!"

Ryou entered.

Bakura looked up from his iPod at the sound of the door opening very loudly. When Bakura saw who it was, he was shocked. "I though I told you not to come in here again!" he shouted at Ryou.

"Well I thought you would be in my room probing my mind and thoughts like the sneaky thief you are, but apparently I was wrong," Ryou explained timidly.

"Still doesn't explain why you came in here." Bakura stood up and walked over to Ryou. "Or why I shouldn't torture your overly British ass for doing so." (Bakura is British by default because of Ryou.)

"Well because I want you to do something for me."

"HA!" Bakura laughed harshly. "Why would I do something for _you_? And how are you going to make me?"

Ryou smirked at Bakura.

A second or two later, Ryou had (somehow) successfully shoved Bakura out of his soul room and into the hallway. Ryou pointed towards the direction he had come from when he entered the hallway. "Get out there and show that guy some love you previously Egyptian wanker!" He locked Bakura's soul room from the outside, ran with the key into his own soul room, and locked the door from the inside.

Bakura looked at Ryou's door in utter shock. _That kid is _soooooo_ going to pay for this later_, he thought as he headed for the end of the hallway.

(This little exchange took place in the span of approximately only three seconds in realtime.)

* * *

As Bakura took control of Ryou's body, he noticed that he was, once again, making out with Marik.

_Forget the payment, I'm just going to murder him._

He was about to pull away again, when he suddenly decided that he didn't want to. He closed his eyes and leaned into it more. He kissed back.

Marik noticed right away that Ryou had turned into Bakura again. Which must be the second "thing". Marik reached up and started petting Bakura. Bakura made a sound that Marik could have sworn sounded like purring.

Five more seconds and they both pulled away at the same time. Bakura let go of Marik. They stared right into each others eyes for a bit.

Then, it was Marik again who broke the silence. "Bakura you _do_ care about me!"

Bakura smirked again, but this time more kindheartedly. "And you, me, Marik."

"Yes. It was obvious the whole time, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it actually _was_ quite obvious. I don't know why you tried to hide it though. I have much more dignity than you and I didn't even deny it. Not that anyone ever really asked."

The two smiled at each other. Then Marik asked a bit eagerly, "Does this mean we're going out now, Fluffy?"

Bakura frowned at both the words and the nickname. "Don't push it, Marik."

Marik watched as the look of Bakura's dissaproval at the nickname turned into confusion. Bakura then held the side of his head with his hand. "What the bugger...?"

"Bakura, what are you doing?"

"Hold on Marik it think that-" he stopped short and his eyes glazed over for a second or two.

* * *

*inside a room in someone's mind*  
*holding an iPod and sitting in a chair*  
"Well I think this has been long enough, they should be done by now."  
*stands up and heads toward the door*  
*puts the iPod in his back pocket.*

* * *

Marik watched Bakura's eyes go blank for a moment before coming back to focus. When they did, Marik noticed they had changed a bit. He looked at the hair and realized Ryou was back.

Ryou looked around a bit to adjust to the current setting and then he looked back at Marik. He looked like he was about to say something, when he remembered something else. "Oh right!" he said as he headed back towards the alley.

When Ryou looked around, he found Kuriby in the same spot he had left him, playing with his tail. At his approach, Kuriby stopped playing and looked up at him. He mewed happily and ran over to him. Ryou pet him joyfully and let the kitty jump onto his head again. When Kuriby was up, Ryou went back to Marik.

Marik saw Ryou exit the alleyway with his stupid cat on his head (Marik had finally been able to tell when Kuriby was there or not. That, and the kitten's brown eyes were open and stood out against Ryou's white hair.) and walk towards him again.

Marik became confused as he experienced déjà vu. He almost expected Ryou to kiss him again, but then he shook off the expectation.

Ryou neared him and it _was_ like history was about to repeat itself.  
And we totally didn't just quote Ishizu.

The two looked at each other.

Marik was somehow able to look at Ryou without looking for Bakura in his eyes.

He walked over to the wall near the alley opening and leaned against it.  
Ryou did the same, but on the other side. He sat down and started petting Kuriby.

Marik thought about what had just happened, and wondered what would happen between him and Bakura later, if he got to see him again. But he saw that despite his appearance, it seemed that Ryou could contain him better than before, and might see less of Bakura. But no matter what happened between the two of them later, he felt that Ryou might now have more access to or involvement on it. Which would either turn out to be an annoying or bad thing.  
Speaking of which...  
He also wondered how this would affect his would-be friendship with Ryou himself. He had finally gained his trust, even after a horrible first meeting, and they had become something that might have been considered friends.

Meanwhile, Ryou was having similarish thoughts. He wondered what kind of relationship the other Bakura and Marik had had before this moment. Though it seemed that Marik had probably always felt like this, maybe it wasn't as open as it just had become. Marik's reaction to what he had done made it seem that way.  
And as for his Yami...  
Well at least Ryou now knew he could be controled. Usually it was the other him who had control of him, but now the tables were turned... Sideways. At an angle. The tables were now turned sideways at an angle. Meaning Ryou now had some control.  
But how exactly was he going to deal with this? This whole situation was getting complicated. He couldn't tell if Marik actually liked him as a friend or was just hanging out with him for Yami Bakura. And the thing with them. He didn't know what those two really did when they hung out. For all he knew, they could've killed people together. Or posted YouTube videos. Or...  
He didn't really want to think about that third option. It was _his_ body, after all. The other him had no right to do that kind of stuff with it. The idea that his other self might have been in a physically romantic relationship with Marik was very unsettling.

History _did_ repeat himself, as Marik broke the silence a third time.  
Ryou was snapped from his thoughts by Marik's voice.

"Listen, Ryou. About that whole thing..." he wasn't sure how to continue.

"First, let me ask you something." Marik looked over at him, wondering what it could be. He already knew why Marik had done it, basically. So he was worried about what he would ask about next. "Did you want to hang out with me because of your friend? Or do you actually care about me as a friend?"

Well that could've turned out to be a worse question. And a more difficult one.

"Well that's an easy one," Marik said, trying to cheer up the mood. "Of course I consider you a friend. _Both_ of you."

"Really?" Ryou asked disbelievingly. "I thought you said that you were tired of me."

"Well I _did_ say that, but I just wanted to cover up the fact that..."

Ryou waited for him to continue. "That?" he insisted.

"Ungh," Marik groaned. "That I love him..." he muttered.

Ryou saw how awkward this was for Marik and wanted to help him lighten up the mood. "So all this time you said you were straight..."

"Meh! Shut your face Ryourik!"

"Kiss my ass, Marik!"

"But there's poop down there! Wait what the [EFF!] just happened there?"

"I stole Yami Bakura's signature dialogue with you," he replied with a smile.

"Well... Don't do it again. It's weird."

"Oh, sorry about that then."

The two guys stood there silently wondering what to say next. "Well, I guess I should get going, Marik."

Marik looked up, seemingly disappointed that Ryou had to leave. Secretly, he was hoping that Bakura would take control again. Sure, Ryou knew how to fight back, but Bakura was still stronger overall.

"Unless... You want to come with me still?"

Marik thought about it. He instantly replied "Sure, whatever."

Ryou perked up. _Now I can interrogate him_! he thought. He stood up and walked over to Marik.

But as they were about to start walking, Ryou suddenly remembered that his Yami was locked out of his soul room.

Usually, Yami Bakura would lock _him_ in his soul room when he was being punished or restricted. And now Ryou had found the key to Yami Bakura's soul room. And he had forgotten to unlock the door on the way out. Oops.

He decided not to do anything about it now. His Yami was probably fine, simply snooping around in his soul room again. Also Ryou didn't know what his Yami would do to him when he got there.

So Ryou just left him there for the time being.

Marik had noticed Ryou not walking. "You okay?" he asked.

Ryou focused on Marik again. "Oh, yeah. I just had forgotten something. Hey, wait. What about...?" Ryou looked around. Sure enough, a few feet away from them lay the black headband that Marik had stolen. He pointed at it. "Marik, your kitty ears."

"Huh?" Marik looked to where Ryou was pointing and saw it on the ground. "Oh, thanks!" He walked over to the spot and picked it up, then brushed off what little dirt was on it.

Should he just carry them like that? Or maybe he could...

He smirked and suddenly reached up to Ryou's head.

Ryou cried out in surprise and wondered what Marik was doing. He braced himself. But he felt nothing.

What had Marik done?

Marik was smiling smugly. And his hands were empty. "What the bugger...?" he mumbled. He felt up to the top of his head. His eyes widened when he found out what Marik had put in his hair. "Marik!"

"What?" Marik asked innocently.

"Why am I wearing the cat ears?" Ryou pointed to them and glared at Marik.

"Because you look cute in them. Also I want Bakura to get annoyed when he gets back and realizes he's wearing them. Tee hee hee."

Ryou rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Speaking of him..."

_Uh-oh..._ Marik wasn't off the hook yet.

"You have a lot of questions to answer."

Marik groaned. This was fan-tucking-fastic. So effing fan-frigging-tucking-fastic...

* * *

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH HAHAAAAAAAAAAA! **

**This thing was a bitch to upload because as some of you may know I do the chapters on my iPod, email them so myself, then copy-paste them here. Well it has become more difficult to do so properly because the line and enter and single line enter whatever things were off because on the iPod "enter" goes by one line. So I had to do a lot of deleting and shift-entering and stuff in order to get it all in their right lines. Also there's that whole italics and bold thing, but that's no big deal. Anyone have any advice on how to do this easier?**

**Thanks to my most recent reviewer, Shadowcat2428, for reviewing. Your review reminded me that I said I was going to update daily. Which is a good thing because then immediately emailed this chapter to myself from my iPod, and then as soon as the email had been sent, my iPod died. What a stroke of coincidental luck! Also you asked "what's Marik doing...?" in your review. I hope this answered your question!**

**TEE HEE HEE!**

**The next chapter is a kind of filler. **

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~!**


	13. 12: An Interseting Walk To The Vet

**Time for some random conversations and useless filler craps!**

**This time, it actually has to do with the storyline, and isn't just another filler or bonus scene. Okay forget the former statement. It's totally filler. Maybe**

**This is a chapter containing the conversation between Ryou and Marik on the way to the veterinarian's place. It is totally filler! Again, maybe.**

**But since this is still a chapter, I still need to do the recap.**

**A quick recap: Bakura goes up to his appartment to put his purchases away. When he comes back downstairs without the Millenium Ring on, Marik starts begging him to let Yami Bakura out. Bakura refuses. Marik kisses him and the Millenium Ring finally teleports to him. Yami Bakura comes out and takes control of Bakura. Yami Bakura realizes that Marik loves him and admits he feels the same. Before he can confront Marik about it, Bakura takes over again. After a moment's conversation, Bakura informs Marik that he is still going to the vet's for Kuriby. Marik still wants to follow, on the slight chance that Yami Bakura may return. They are now walking there.**

**Sorry for confusion about the pairings. I know I've been developing the friendship between Marik and Ryou pretty much the whole time, but as the pairing has been thiefshipping all along. Which is why this is called "ThiefSlipping". And why I didn't change the title to "AngstSlipping".**

**The timing for this whole thing is kinda off. I started this and had it set just after the fourth Evil Council of Doom video (I think part 5 was out already). But that was before I knew about the "Marik Plays Bloodlines" thing I think.**

***goes to check***

**No, I had already known about Bloodlines. The thing is, this is set BEFORE Marik made the videos. Technically, the whole "thief" and "shipping" ass tattoos part is a reference to that, but the idea is to assume that the incident itself had already happened, but Marik hadn't created the video in which he mentions it yet. But now how will I fit the whole "the ghost is gay, not me!" confession into this now? I'll think of something.**

**Okay? Okay.**

**Okay, let's get to it!**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

"Before I begin, I want you to know that most of these will be centered around what you did with my Yami while I wasn't aware."

Marik groaned again. "Ryou... How far away is the vet's place from here?"

"About as far as Toki-Cari is from Yugi's place."

"But that walk took me frigging forever! My feet are tired! Can we rest for like five minutes?"

"You should have taken your bloody motorcycle."

"How did you know about the bloody motorcycle?!" Marik accusingly exclaimed. "How could you-?"

"Don't make fun of my Britishness!"

"Oooohhhhh... Right." Marik had thought he meant 'bloody' as in actual blood. Good thing he hadn't, because Marik wasn't going to explain that.

"Anyway! Stop complaining and stalling! First question. What did you mean two days ago when you said 'got back from the council meeting'? What council?"

Oh boy... "Well, you know that Bakura and I are the evilest people on Yu-Gi-Oh!, so we decided to create an Evil Council of Doom in order to plot together on how to defeat Yugi Muto and the Pharaoh once and for all! And possibly kill him! And then we would rule the world!" He was now talking very dramatically. It made Ryou a little nervous about asking more questions. "But Bakura always insults my plans and says they're stupid."

"Well if one of them involved messing up a sock drawer, then I don't blame him for that."

"Shut up," Marik said harshly. "Look, you may think of me as a friend, and I you. But now that you've seen what I can do and know more about me and Bakura a bit, I'm done going easy on you. In fact, I'm going to start talking to you like I do Bakura, so don't complain if I seem rude or sarcastic. Got it?"

Ryou shrank back a bit. But he was tougher than he looked. He swallowed his fear (Hey, where did that come from?) and nodded bravely. "Alright. Just don't start hit-"

"Don't even go there, Limey Man."

Ryou was starting to not like this new side of Marik. It was just as stupid and sarcastic and annoying (again, where did this emotion come from?) as the one Ryou had seen more of, but now it was more...evil... And also ruder and more bitchy or assholey. Considering the way Marik looked, he was more of a bitch than an asshole.

"Okay." Marik continued. "So! We invited several of the Yu-Gi-Oh! villans to join..."

"Is Kaiba in it?"

"No! Why do you two think that Kaiba is a villan? Or evil enough? Or good enough for my council? He's not good enough."

"He seems evil to me. He never cares for anyone but himself, he is the most sceptical guy on the face of the universe, and when he smiles, a puppy dies! When he laughs, _ten_ puppies die! How is he-?"

"Anti-hero."

Ryou calmed down a bit. "Oh that makes sense. You can't have an anti-hero in a council of villans, evil or not. It just doesn't work."

"Well _someone_ is smarter than his Yami."

"Yay! I'm awesome!" He pumped his fist in the air.

Marik looked at Ryou like he was crazy. "Don't ever say or do that again."

Ryou put his arm down. "Sorry."

"Anyway... We meet up regularly. It's held somewhere in Egypt in my underground home. It's the only secret place we can use that can hold  
Zor-"

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!" Ryou interrupted. "In Egypt?! I was travelling to buggering Egypt?! Regularly?! Who the bloody hell was paying for all of my plane tickets?! How have I not gone broke by now?! How many times has this happened?!"

Marik stared at Ryou when he was silent. "Are you done?"

Ryou smiled and nodded. "Yup!"

"Okay. Now two things. One: most of the trips were on me. Two: Bakura was apparently in a past lif- mamfkmfng!" Ryou had covered Marik's mouth while he talked. Marik removed the hand. "Ryou! What the [EFF!] was that for?!"

"Spoilers, Marik! Not everyone has watched Season 5 yet!"

"Oh well excuuuuuse me," he said sarcastically. "Not like I care. Hey everybody! The Pharaoh's real name is- Ahhhh!"

Ryou had punched him in the stomach and stepped on his foot very hard. "Don't spoil it, you giant buggering wanker!"

"Or what?!" Marik said menacingly as he glared at Ryou and rubbed his sore stomach in the place Ryou had punched.  
(Somewhere, a fangirl has just fainted in her seat while reading this.)

"I'll do that again."

"I can handle it."

"Then I'll cry."

"And what in the name of Ra will that accomplish?"

"My thousands of fangirls will attack you for making me sad."

"Gaaah! No! Okay fine, no spoilers."

*Ryou winks at you*  
(Somewhere else, another fangirl has just fainted.)

"So what were you saying before?"

"Hmph. Bakura is a master thief, so he sometimes stole the tickets. Or the money for the tickets. Only once or twice though. Just for fun. And there have been four of them so far. The latest one was the fourth. He stole the money for his ticket on the ride home."

"So, let me get this straight," Ryou said slowly. "You and Yami Bakura go to Egypt every..."

"Year."

"...year, go underground with other villans, eat tacos..."

"First of all, how did you hear about the tacos? Second of all, they were a lie."

"...and sit around talking about how to defeat Yugi and Yami Yugi?! And possibly kill him?! What the hell is wrong with you git-faced wankers?!"

"We're evil, Ryou. Get over it. Do you want me to leave so you don't have to be around evil anymore?"

Ryou wanted to leave, but decided not to. Besides, he could handle Marik being evil. He survived being with his Yami, and Marik was a step down. So things would be fine. He was sure of it. "No. You can stay."

Marik was surprised. He was sure that Ryou would leave by now so as not to get corrupted by his evilness. But he was still here. Impressive. Bakura was certainly going to bitch about this later. After all, it was probably easier to control a good Ryou, not a bad one.

"Okay then." Marik sighed at what he was about to say. "Next question."

"Right! I kinda don't really want to talk about this because it's kind of embarrassing..."

Oh, Ra. What could it possibly be?

"I mentioned it to you earlier and you dodged the question."

Oh-no, oh-no, oh-no!

"That tattoo I mentioned... Do you have one?"

"Gaaaaaahhhhhhh..." Marik facepalmed in embarrassment. "Do I have to answer that question?"

"Yes. Or I will murder you at the top of Big Ben by making you eat a poisoned scone."

"What the [EFF!] does that even mean?"

"It's just a thing. Don't question it. Also it's supposed to scare you."

"Well it worked," Marik admitted. He sighed. "Alright... Me and Bakura were in Vegas this one time and-"

"I'm already not liking this. But go on."

"And we kinda sorta got really drunk and we were totally wasted. And then we went to this tattoo place. And we got a pair of tattoos together."

Ryou expected Marik to continue, but he didn't. "Come on! I _know_ there's more! Out with it!"

"No!" Marik shouted.

"Fangirls!" Ryou threatened.

"I have those too!"

"I have a cute kitten. And I'm wearing kitty ears! They'd drown you to death in nose blood!"

"I'm sexy."

"I have double adorableness."

"I'm showing off my sexy midriff."

"I have an accent. And British accents are the sexiest accents."

"I have an equally sexy evil alter ego!"

"There are _three_ versions of me! And Yami Bakura's past self is sexier than you!"

"I can sing better! Bakura and his past self can't sing at all!"

"No you can't!"

"Yes I can!"

"Just tell me already!"

"Nooooo..."

"Don't make me go all Yami Yugi on you! I'll bring him here too if I have to!"

"No you can't! [EFF!]ing hates you!"

"Then I'll just quote him." Ryou tried to voice act Yami. "Tell me!"

"Oh you'll find out. I'm about to summon it! Not! Honestly just leave me alone!"

"No!" Ryou suddenly became aware of their surroundings.

The two had stopped walking and had been shouting at each other. They looked around and noticed several people staring at them.

Marik glared at them and said, "What the [EFF!] you lookin' at?" They all turned away and continued on with their lives.

"Thats right! You keep walking!"

"Ahem!"

Marik turned back to Ryou. He and Kuriby were staring at him expectantly. "Talk."

Marik sighed. "Fine! They were on our butts. Erm... Mine kinda sorta says... 'thief'. And Ba- _yours_- says 'shipping'. There okay I said it!" Marik kept walking.

Ryou gasped. So Marik _did_ do that! How else would he know the exact word? _Oh my gosh_, he thought._ This guy and Yami Bakura are an insane pair of friends. I really don't regret nailing him to the wall for three days._

He shook off the extreme shock and followed. "You... He... Are they permanent or just really difficult to remove? Because I've tried..."

"They're permanent."

Ryou stared at him open mouthed.

"It was a drunk moment, okay? It was supposed to say 'thiefshipping' when we put our asses next to each other."

Ryou's mouth opened wider.

"Come on! I'm not proud of it! And if it makes you feel any better, Bakura is absolutely ashamed and embarrassed about it."

Ryou finally closed his mouth in a tight line.

He shook his head. "You two are insane. No wonder you're perfect for each other."

"Nope. That's psychoshipping. I'm not in it. And I'm glad for that because the things that people say they do to each other are absolutely _crazy_! Like probably-illegal crazy.

"I don't care. Next question."

"Are we there yet?" Marik whined.

"Stop acting like such a tosser. Next question."

"Ungh..."

"In Battle City, I apparently got Wanker's Cramp. Was that you and Yami Bakura who did that?"

These questions were _not_ going easy on him. "Another one I'm guilty for, yes. We were."

"So Yugi and the others were right. You _did_ stab me!"

"Yes. We gave Bakura- well you- Wanker's Cramp so we could confuse them into thinking I was a friend, and then I kidnapped Joey and Tea and changed their names to Steve. By the way they never changed their names back. But Bakura healed up and stuff and then you were _alllllll_ better. The end!"

"I hate you right now."

"I know."

"I'm still asking you questions."

"I know."

"Next one! What contact information do you have on me that my Yami  
gave you?"

"Thank you!" Marik cried in relief.

"What for?"

"For going easy on me with the questions!"

"Um... You're welcome?"

"Yes! Okay. Now, the stuff that Bakura gave me was your email address, your home address, his cell phone number..."

"My cell phone? What about my home phone?!"

"Shut up and let me finish. Certain school information and stuff, in case I needed to help you bust out of there for some reason, and he also gave me Yugi Muto's phone number."

So far, Ryou already knew that Marik had his email address and his home address. But now he had his and Yugi's cell phone too? "Did he go into my memories and steal the information from me?"

"And Yugi's home number."

"Did he steal this information from my mind or something?"

"Ryou, you should know better than I do how this works. He has access to your memories anyway."

"Yes but..."_ Oh wait_, Ryou thought._ I don't actually remember Yugi's number. He must have stolen it from my phone or something. And speaking of which..._ "So you have my cell phone number?" he asked.

Marik thought about that for a moment. "Erm... I'm not really sure. After all, he could have simply gotten his own. Let me see..." He took out his cell phone and speed dialed Bakura's cell. After a moment, he heard ringing, meaning the call had gotten through.

Marik and Ryou both tensed as they waited for Ryou's cell phone to start ringing. But nothing happened.

"I guess that answers that question," Ryou said.

"Yup." Marik was about to hang up when he heard Bakura's voice mail kick in.

{_Leave a message. If I care, I might call back. Or not._}

He decided to leave a funny message. "The cat is in the bag. Bakura get out of the bag!" He laughed as he hung up.

Ryou didn't get it. "What the bugger is that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"Seriously? Haven't you caught on by now? Cat in the bag? Yami Bakura is in the bag? He's the... Oh nevermind."

"Wha- oh I get it." Bakura was the cat. Because of his hair. Yeah. That was _totally_ hilarious. "Veeery funny, Marik," he said sarcastically.

"Yes!" Marik cried successfully. "Now are we done with the interrogation?"

"Nope!"

"Aaaawwww!"

"Next question..."

"Ugh."

"What kind of crimes have you two done? Like have you killed anyone or gotten arrested? Oh my god I hope I'm not a killer when I'm not around. Is my Yami a killer? Am I on any wanted lists?! I don't want to be a criminal! My mummy says I'm a good boy! I'm definitely not a villan! I'm not a bad boy I swear!"

Ryou was shouting now and breathing hard and crying a little bit. Marik put both hands on his shoulders and steadied him. "Ryou! Calm the [EFF!] down! You're fine! You're not wanted by the authorities! Stop crying and stuff!"

"Ahhhh..." Ryou sniffed and tried to calm down. "A-are you sure that I'm no-"

"Yes! I am."

Ryou sniffed again and wiped his tears away with his hand. "Oh my gosh... I'm sorry about that. I guess it was just that I've had a lot of stuff going on recently and I guess I just broke down there. I get very sensitive about my Yami having control over me. I'm sorry."

"_Mew._"

The two had forgotten that Kuriby was even there. It just felt so natural holding him that Ryou didn't feel anything. "You too, Kuri. I'm sorry for the outburst."

Kuriby accepted his apology.

Ryou decided to let Kuriby on his head again, just for the time being. He lifted the kitty up to his head. "Leave the kitty ears alone," Ryou warned him.

Kuriby mewed in agreement.

"Good. Now Marik, what were you saying before?"

"Yes... About the trouble we have gotten into.. You already know about Bakura being and epically skilled thief. We steal stuff mostly. We never get caught, we make sure of that between my Millenium Rod and Steves and his- I mean your- Millenium Ring and the memory erase."

"Oh right, I had forgotten that it could do that." Ryou sighed sadly and stressfully. This interrogation of Marik and Yami Bakura was yielding a lot of information that Ryou was very much not liking. But as long as Marik only had his evil attitude and didn't actually do any evil things when he was around, Ryou could deal with it.

"Ryou, Kuriby is about to bite the cat ears."

"Huh what? Oh." He put a hand up to the top of his head and waved it at Kuriby. "Kuri, stop that. Now where was I?"

"I was saying something about the Millenium Ring and how we never get caught."

"Oh yes, about that... You know how you keep saying 'him' and 'his' but keep correcting it to 'you' and 'yours'?"

"Uh-huh."

"Don't do that anymore."

"Why not?"

"Because it just makes things feel less personal. Like I'm asking about my brother as opposed to a guy who controls my body sometimes. This isn't about me and what my body did while under his control, it's about what he did in his body when he was in control."

Marik put a hand on his chin in though. "So what you're saying is, you want me to treat it as if it's his body that he's using, not yours."

"Well not exactly. It _is_ my body, but more like treat it as if he's himself, not him in my body. Don't say you or your or something like that. Makes me feel like I did all that stuff."

"But under the influence of a Yami."

"Exactly. Well, sort of."

Marik had said he wasn't going easy on Ryou, but he still considered the two of them friends, so he decided not to make things _too_ uncomfortable for him. "Sure whatever."

"Thanks Marik," Ryou said with a smile. It really put his heart at ea-.

"Ryourik."

"What?" Ryou questioned the name. "Why do you keep bloody calling me 'Ryourik'? Obviously it's not my name. And why does it sounds like 'Ree-oh' and 'rick'? It's like you-"

"Yeah it's our names combined. R-Y-O-U-R-I-K. Ryourik. Cuz... Well I didn't really want to tell you this because it was a secret but I suppose there's no harm, right? You remember the card prank?"

Ryou chuckled. "How could I not? Why?"

"Well that time when I had a strange look on my face? It was because I was planning to turn you into my own little prank-loving-chaos-creating-Marik-prodigy. Obviously it didn't work."

"Really?!"

"Yup."

"Seriously?"

"Ah-huh."

Ryou suddenly ran ahead of him. _Good_, Marik thought. _He's finally doing the right thing and running away from me. I think. Wait is he-?_

All he did was go in front of Marik and turn around, walking backwards as he talked and listened.

"Why would you want to do that?" he asked.

"Because you seemed a bit too pure and innocent for my liking."

"Well then, maybe I should leave if you don't actually like me being a good person. As you said before," Ryou mimicked Marik. "Get over it. Do you want me to leave so you don't have to be around good anymore?"

"No!" Marik said quickly, and one might argue frantically.

"Oh really? You actually like me? You actually don't mind me being good and not-evil and not liking your adventures with my Yami which usually end up in the plan being ruined or him dragging you out or-"

"Oh my god! Shut up!" Ryou stopped talking abruptly. "God! No I don't mind you being good. I do have good in me. My sister thinks so, and always tries to bring it out even if I don't want her to at the moment. Anyway. I'm okay with you not being evil like I am at the moment. But the talking? Oh my holy frigging Ra! You talk more in thirty seconds than I do in five minutes! Can't you just take a break?"

Ryou was still walking backwards. He looked a bit hurt now, but Marik didn't notice.

Marik put facepalmed and shook his head. "We must be some pretty annoying hikaris. No wonder our Yamis like to keep us restrained from time to time."

"Yeah I know... Wait, from time to time?" Ryou stopped walking backwards and let himself fall back into step with Marik. "From what you've been telling me, this sort of thing happens for days or even weeks at a time!"

"Yeah. But I mean locking us up from time to time. Melvin does it with me all the time. But only when he comes out, which doesn't happen often. As for you, sure you're stuck in there for days at a time, but at least the door isn't _always_ locked."

Marik's words reminded Ryou of the fact that Yami Bakura was still roaming around outside of his own soul room and snooping into Ryou's probably.

Then he registered what Marik had said. '...the door isn't always locked...'

"Marik, do you mean to say that you already knew about the whole locked door thing with me and him?"

"Yeah," he replied plainly. Then he covered his mouth with his hand. "Oh [EFF!]!"

* * *

Ryou now had a whole other topic to ask Marik about. Before he had questioned Marik on what he knew about himself and Yami Bakura, but now he was going to ask what Marik knew about Ryou and Yami Bakura.

They were about halfway there. So far, the conversation had kept Marik from complaining about walking. So if he kept Marik talking, not only would he get answers, but he would also shut Marik up about the distance.

"Now we have something new to talk about!" Ryou cheerfully announced.

"Oh no... What?"

"What you know about the relationship between me and my Yami. Start with that. Just tell me what you know."

"Why?" Marik whined.

"One, because we aren't there yet. And two, because I asked. And three, because you agreed to answer my questions."

Marik thought about that for a moment before arguing. "Uh, no actually. I _didn't_ agree to this. You just said 'answer this! Answer that' and I just was like 'yeah yeah yeah!', but I never actually agreed to answer them a-a-lllllllll..." Marik trailed off when he saw Ryou's facial expression.

Ryou's lip was trembling and he looked like he was about to cry.

To be honest, so did Kuriby.

Oh no... "Ryou please don't cry and then sic your fangirls on me! They're completely insane! I'll answer your effing stupid-ass questions!"

Ryou's face cheered up again. So did Kuriby's. "Yay! You agreed to it so no turning back! Now answer the question. What did my Yami tell you about the two of us?"

'Stall for time!' Marik thought. "Erm.. Could you be more specific?" he asked.

"Well I'll try. Um..." Ryou thought about it for a moment before replying. "Tell me what you know about how we interact."

The thing was, Bakura had told Marik not to tell Ryou about any of the stuff he had said about them two. Part of the reason was because Bakura never expected Marik to even run into Ryou when he was in control. The other reason was because he didn't want Ryou knowing the Yami-Hikari stuff that he knew.

But did that mean he wasn't allowed to mention that he wasn't allowed to tell? Marik decided to take his chances.

"Well, the thing is that I'm not allowed to tell you..."

"Why the bloody hell not? This is _me_ we are talking about. I've a right to know what you know about me. So start talking Ishtar!"

"Well I don't actually know much about it anyway! He didn't tell me much, only vague details and muttered sentences." Which wasn't a lie at all.

"I don't believe you. Even if I did, I want to hear what you _do_ know. So start talking! Come on!"

Marik was about to come up with another excuse when he realized that Ryou had said "Start talking Ishtar!" _I'm pretty sure that I never told Ryou my last name_, Marik thought._ Maybe he heard it from Yugi and the others? Come to think of it, a lot of the stuff he said has a lot of holes in it. Kind of like the plot of Yu-Gi-Oh! story line._ Now was the time to ask about that before he forgot.

"Ryou, I have a question for-"

"No," Ryou interrupted. "Not now! Stop avoiding he question!"

"I'm not! We can go back to your Yami/Hikari stuff later. For now I want a few of my own questions answered. First one!"

"But-"

"No! First one! How did you know my last name? Did Yugi and the others tell you?"

Ryou thought back to his meeting with Yugi two days ago. The thing was that he had excellent memory. It was just that he sometimes had random gaps it it. Which was how he knew when it was his Yami's fault. So he knew for certain what had happened two days ago. "No, actually. No they didn't. They just told me your name was Marik. But your last name sounded familiar. I know your sister."

"So how did you know my name then?"

Ryou thought hard about that, but couldn't find an answer. "I don't know."

"How could you not know? Where did you hear it before?"

"First of all, why does it matter? Secondly, maybe it's some kind of surpressed memory or something. I don't know."

"Oh okay then whatever..." Marik wondered what he should ask next. "So there's a thing about-"

Ryou held out a hand to cut him off. "Nope! No more. Back to me now. Answer my bloody question you crazy evil Egyptian!"

"Enough with the name calling already! People are going to start calling you OOC."

"I don't care!"

"Stop stealing Bakura's catchphrases and signature dialogues! That's either copyright infringement or plagiarism!"

"It may be his catchphrase, but that doesn't mean it can't be used by other people! And also I don't care about stealing his stuff. He steals from me so this is like payback... In a way... And wait a minute... You bought- I mean stole- these cat ears for Yami Bakura, didn't you?" Ryou put a hand up to his head and touched the fake cat ears. "You're weird. Do you think that he looks _cute_ in them or something? Can I take these off now?" Ryou moved his hands to remove the headband.

"No!" Marik suddenly grabbed Ryou's wrists before he could do so.

Ryou stared at Marik confusedly. "Why the bloody hell not?" he asked.

Marik looked just as surprised as Ryou felt, like he couldn't believe that he had done that. "Um... Errrrr... I don't know. Because I want you to keep them on."

"Why?"

Marik released Ryou's wrists. Both of them dropped their hands to their sides.

On Ryou's head, Kuriby cowered a bit because of the hands that had almost hit him in the face.

"I didn't want you to take them off. I told you that I wanted to piss of Bakura when he sees that he is wearing them."

"I know that, but I still want to know why-"

Marik interrupted him. "Are we there yet?!" he whined.

"No! Now answer the bloody ques-" Ryou cut himself off when he noticed the building in front of them.

They had arrived.

* * *

**Yay another chapter! **

**I actually realized I never said that I would be updating daily. But if I did, sorry for not posting this sooner.**

**Not much to say in the Ending AN...  
****Oh wait...  
Oh nevermind. I thought there was a party going on at the end of this chapter, but it's actually next chapter.  
OH yeah! If you wanna go to the party at the end of next chapter to celebrate the capture of the insert hacker person, then review saying so. However I will except party crashers!**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEEE~!**


	14. 13: Back To Bakura

**Okay back to the stuffs! [EDIT: A few minor edits and additions, especially to the part about beating the crap out of him in the Shadow Realm for saying "Bakura Jr.". Other than that, its not really changed much.]**

**A quick recap: Marik kisses Bakura in an attempt to bring out Yami ****Bakura, and it works. After a quick conversation between the two, ****Bakura takes over again. Learning about the reasons for Marik's action ****compels him to finally interrogate Marik about his relationship and ****partnership with Yami Bakura. He does this on the way to the ****veterinarian's place. Also Marik puts the kitty ears he stole from the ****pet store earlier on Bakura's head, as a joke and to irritate Yami ****Bakura later. They have just arrived.**

**Okay now we are still going to go with the same naming scheme from now ****on. But I'm still making Ryou his last name and Bakura his first name.**

**Big news! I realized that Yami Bakura was the insert hacker, and now ****everything is okay! I'm going to delete some of his inserts while f****ixing up my chapters. But I'm only going to delete the unnecessary ****ones, just in case the rest are tolerable.**

**Thanks to everyone who helped me deal with him, especially the ones ****who told me what food he would eat and the person who informed me he ****wanted to be paid to advertise.**  
**As a reward, you all get the rest of the trap food! The pizza and ****tacos are still warm somehow, and Bakura only took one slice and one ****taco. But he didn't touch the cookies.**

**Party at the end of the chapter!**

**Anyway...**

**Time to get a move on! In this chapter, Yami Bakura will take control ****again. Also, some stuff happens between him and Ryou! Wahhhhh! ****The chapter moves away from the genre of humor in that part, but it ****goes back so don't worry! I have moved that part of it and moved it to i****ts own chapter as a deleted scene. Also Bakura _will_ react to the ****kitty ears tee hee hee!**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

"Bugger!" Ryou exclaimed. He had wanted to talk to Marik more, but they were already there.

"What? What are you looking at?" Marik followed Ryou's gaze and saw that they _had_ arrived. "Ha! You liar! We _are_ here! Don't try to pull that one on me."

"I wasn't! I just didn't notice it." He walked a few steps ahead of Marik.

"Well we're here now. You want me to go inside with you or what?" Marik suddenly noticed an iPod in Ryou's back pocket. It had a sticker that looked like a drop of blood on the back, so he knew whose it was. "Uh, Ryou?"

Ryou turned around. "Yes, Marik?"

Marin pointed at his pocket. "Why do you have Bakura's iPod in your back pocket?"

"Huh? iPod? He has an iPod too? Where?" Ryou reached to his back pocket and removed the item in question. He looked at it and gasped. It was the same iPod he had taken from Yami Bakura just before he had taken back control of his body. How did it get here?

_This doesn't make sense. I remember holding it when we were in our soul hallway. And then I put it in my back pocket. But how did it materialize in the real world? How?_

Ryou held it out to Marik and turned it around and around so Marik could inspect it. "Are you sure this is his?" he asked.

Marik nodded and replied, "Yes I'm sure. He has that sticker on it. If you look at the home screen he should have an app labeled Evil Something. And also the background screen is the Millenium Ring."

_What an odd choice for a background image_, Ryou thought. He pressed the home button and saw that Marik was right about the second detail. But what about the first? He slid his his finger across the "slide to unlock", but discovered that a password was required. What could it be?

He didn't really want to break into his yami's iPod because it was wrong and he might get mad, but decided to enter the password anyway. But what was it?

A number suddenly popped into his head. He entered it in.

7968.

It worked. "I'm in," he said to Marik.

"Oh yeah I forgot about the password... Wait you got it? what is it?! Tell me please?"

"No bloody way!"

"Aw... Anyway you see the thingy I told you about?"

He did. "Yeah. This is his. But it's the same one I saw when I was in my soul room. How could it have generated itself here?"

"I don't know! But it's cool! Lemme see it!" Marik made a grab for the device, but Ryou held it away from him.

"No! Bad Marik! Stop that!"

"Please, Ryourik! Pleeeeeaaaasssseeeeee?!"

"NO! And don't call me Ryourik."

"Aw..." Marik put his arm down and folded his arms, pouting.

"Stop that. Only Yami Yugi can do the epic pouting maneuver."

"Do you think I [EFF!]ing care?"

"You should! Because he would totally Mind Crush you if he saw you near me right now!"

"Why?"

"Because you're evil and I'm not and he would mistake me for my yami and then he would Mind Crush you and try to play a card game with me!"

"What sense does that even make?"

"None whatsoever. But it proves that you cannot pout like Yami Yugi can!"

"Who cares?! Hey you know what I just realized?"

"What?"

"That you and me are arguing just as much as me and Bakura would argue. Coincidence or something, right?"

_Speaking of Bakura... _Ryou thought._ I should probably return this to him, somehow, before he gets mad at me for it._ "Give me a minute, Marik. I'll be right back." He retreated into his mind.

* * *

Marik stared at Ryou as he zoned out. "What? Ryou where are you going?" No answer.

"Ryou?"

No answer.

Marik waved a hand in front of his face.

He had the same look on his face that he'd had just before...

"Oh, so that's what's going on here? Okay. I'll wait."

Suddenly, the iPod dematerialized from his hand.

"Now that is just freaky," Marik said.

* * *

**~Meanwhile~**

* * *

Ryou saw that his yami's door was still locked and closed. However his own door was slightly ajar and not locked at all.

Ryou took a deep breath and slowly walked towards the door. He gently pushed it open, poked his head inside, and looked around.

"Yami?" he called. "You in here? I have your AHHHHHHHHH!"

He was suddenly attacked from the right. Bakura had been pressed up against the wall on the opposite side of the door frame from the door.

He grabbed Ryou from behind and held him in a headlock with his right arm. "You have some nerve showing up here so soon," he whispered in his hikari's ear. "Any sooner and I would have been in an even worse mood. Now what do you want from me?"

Ryou gulped and shivered. "Um. I-I have your..." His hand started shaking, so much that he dropped the device. It clattered to the floor and both of them automatically glanced at it.

Bakura stared at the fallen item. "So, you stole my iPod."

He bent down to pick it up, taking Ryou with him. Ryou winced when Bakura made him bend down awkwardly.

Bakura held the device in his hand. He chuckled. "How did that happen?" He pressed the button and slid his finger across the screen. The home screen automatically popped up instead of asking for the password. "And you figured out the password too. You little thief. Under different circumstances, I would say that I was proud of you. But I'm not."

"Now what?" Ryou asked fearfully.

Bakura smirked.

* * *

**~Transition~**

* * *

Bakura walked over to Ryou and started searching him. "What in the name of buggery are you doing to me?" Ryou asked. His yami's hand suddenly stopped moving over one of his back pockets. He felt a bulge being slid out of it.

Bakura moved his hand in front of Ryou's face and waved the item in his hands.

Ryou examined it. It was a key. But the design of it was peculiar. It looked like two pointy t's stacked on top of each other. _Where have I seen that design before? _he wondered._ It must be the key to his soul room. I've seen it only once before earlier today, but I've never examined it before._

Bakura heard him through their mind link. "Don't you even think of asking me about it." Bakura stood up straight and left Ryou's soul room. He walked to the other side of the hallway and unlocked his own door.

Ryou watched from his seat, which faced straight out the door, as his yami turned around and smiled evilly. He opened the door.

Bakura reached into his pocket and took something out. He held up the key to Ryou's soul room.

_"I still have yours_," Bakura thought to him.

Ryou heard him and gasped internally. _"__Not again..."_

_"Yes again."_ "But first," he said aloud. He called upon a memory that lay unwanted from deep within his room. Then he brought out a ball of fire from it. He flung it into Ryou's soul room.

Ryou flinched backwards so fast that he accidentally tipped the chair over. His head his the floor hard. He rubbed his head with one hand and helped himself sit up with the other. His eyes widened when he saw the fire in front of the door, between him and the hallway.

Bakura laughed as he walked over to the door, unaffected by the fire. He put a hand on the doorknob and locked it in front of Ryou's eyes. "See you later," he taunted. He removed the key and closed the door.

Ryou stared at the fire silently. He rolled off the fallen chair and crept cautiously towards the blaze, which thankfully seemed to have a set size and wasn't spreading or growing. He crept closer and slowly stuck a hand out. He kept a foot away, but could still feel the heat. Apparently it would only hurt him, not anything else.

_Well that fire isn't going to move or shrink any time soon. It's blocking me from getting to the door. He obviously did that so I couldn't pick the lock again, so I'll just have to wait in here untill he decides to let me out._

Still outside, Bakura listened in on the thoughts of his poor, defenseless, and trapped hikari. He was amused by the things he thought of.

He took Ryou's key and looked at it. It looked like two £'s: one backwards and one forwards. The left was a darker shade than the right. He threw it inside his soul room. Then he locked the door, put his key in his back pocket and walked out of their soul hallway.

He took control of Ryou's body once more.

* * *

Marik was looking the other way when he heard Ryou make a sound again. He turned and faced him again.

The first things that Bakura registered were the veterinarian building and Marik.

"Ryou, you're back! Bakura's iPod disappeared. What happened with that?"

The next thing he noticed was the weight on his head. That weight was Ryou's stupid kitten.

Kuriby sensed the change in his owner again, but had also noticed that Ryou's hair had changed. He sensed the same thing in this person that he had sensed in the ring around the person's neck earlier that day.

He didn't like it.

He tried to jump off of Bakura's head.

Bakura, having super fast reflexes, caught the annoying kitten in midair. "Oh no you don't!" he said.

Marik heard the change in Ryou's voice. He looked at the hair and saw the batwings, and knew that Bakura was back. "Bakura!" he cried cheerfully. "You're back! Let me guess, you locked Ryou in again?"

Bakura nodded at Marik. "Hi again. Yes I did. But this time," he grinned, "I blocked the door. Now the little bugger can't even pick the bloody lock." He looked down at the squirming kitten in his hands. "Now what am I supposed to do with this little piece of crap?" he asked Marik.

"We keep him!" Marik shouted. "I have more issues with him than you do, but I'm smart enough to be willing to keep him. And I know that if we value our lives, we will not do anything bad to this demonic kitty."

"So what you're saying is that if anything happens to this kitten, which Ryou has grown attached to, has affected the plot of this fanfic more than you have, I have watched scratch both you and my host a total of three times, and hid my favorite card for almost a full 24 hours, then my host is going to murder us."

"Yes."

"Do you even care about this thing?"

"No."

"Then why did you follow Ryou here?"

Things had just come full circle. Bakura was back. Marik blushed and muttered, "You."

Bakura's 'I don't care' face transformed into one of surprise. "What? Me? But wh-" Then he remembered earlier that day, before they had started walking. "So you were being serious about..."

"Loving you?"

"...being gay?"

Marik facepalmed. "Of course you would pick _that_ to mention! How about I confessed to you? How about that?"

Bakura sighed and smiled. Or was that a smirk? He walked up to Marik and put a hand on his shoulder. This meant that he had to hold Kuriby with one hand. He held the kitten between his hand and his chest so he wouldn't run away. "Marik, I am glad that you said that. I would love for us to talk about it in detail later, but this is not the time or place for it. I need time to think. Also I want to deal with this thing before someone gets hurt."

At the mention of himself, Kuriby started squirming under Bakura's hand. Bakura grabbed the feline with both hands and held it away from his body. "Now what?" he asked hopelessly. "He doesn't like me and I'm not an animal person."

Marik knew that was very true. People and animals were two things that Bakura did _not_ like dealing with. But he didn't want to deal with Kuriby either. So who was going to do it?

For what Bakura would joke was the first time, Marik got a good idea. "I got it!"

"An idea? For once I hope it's a good one."

"Shut up. We do that thing where we stand on either side of him and he will pick who he wants to go to. Simple!"

Bakura considered it. "That... Actually makes sense. Only one problem though. He will most likely run away instead of jumping lovingly into our arms."

"Well then we'll do it like this." Marik put a hand on one of Bakura's hands.

Bakura flinched and blushed ever so slightly at the touch. "Marik, what are you doing?"

"Remove this hand." Marik tapped the hand he was touching.

"Oh." Bakura realized what Marik was going for and did so. "Now we see who he squirms for?"

"Ayup."

"This had better yield some results before this thing scratches me. Or before I murder it. Or you."

At the moment, Kuriby was just flailing around in random directions. But when he realized that the two evil persons holding him from either side weren't moving, he stopped squirming.

He looked both of them in the eyes, back and forth. First Yami Bakura, then Marik, then Yami Bakura again. He wondered who he should run to.

The paler human was more evil than the tanned one, but he had his owner's body. On the other hand, he knew the tanned human for longer, and was more familiar with him. The white haired one looked like his owner, but the blond one talked to him more. Also he had said to not hurt Kuriby. The white haired one wanted him gone.

Kuriby made his decision.

He started waving his arms in one direction, struggling to reach the one on his left. He tried to squirm out of the hand of the one on his right.

He had chosen Marik.

"Ha!" Marik exclaimed. "He chose me!" Marik put his other hand around Kuriby as Bakura simultaneously removed his hand.

"Now that he's literally out of my hands," Bakura said as he wiped his hands together to brush the cat hair off of them, "what are we going to do now?"

"I guess we should do what Ryou was about to do," Marik suggested. "And then tell him about it later."

He let Kuriby rest on his arms and brought them close to his chest. To his surprise, the small white kitty glared distrustfully at Bakura and then rubbed his head against Marik, purring. "Awww, Bakura! He _is_ cute! And I think he's starting to not hate me. Can Ryou keep him? Pleeeeaaassseee?"

Bakura simply folded his arms and said, "No."

"Come on! Please! Ryou will murder you later if we don't."

"I don't care."

"Well why not? I really am starting to not despise him as well. When you're in control, I think I'll call him..."

_He had better not say..._

Marik saw the look in Bakura's eyes and readied himself. "...Bakura Jr."

Marik quickly dodged to the side as Bakura's fist shot past him. Had he not anticipated this reaction, Bakura would have either punched Marik in the chest or Kuriby in the face.

Bakura turned around to face Marik again, glaring at him. "I swore a few chapters ago that if you called him that again I would beat tha crap out of you in the Shadow Realm. And you just did. I'd rather save myself the trouble of going to the Shadow Realm and just kill one of you now. I am not letting that cat get away with being the center of the plot of this fanfic. The bloody title is called ThiefSlipping. Not NekoSlipping! It's supposed to center around you and me, not him! And not even Ryou should have interfered. I wish I had rewritten the story faster before I was pulled in. And I am-" Bakura stopped mid-sentence when Marik moved next to him and gently put an arm around him.

"Calm down. We can ditch the cat later. And speaking of cats..." Marik reached a hand up to pet Bakura's head again. Bakura tensed for a second, but then found himself involuntarily leaning into the motion and enjoying it.

Marik could have sworn that Bakua made that purring sound again. "Such a cute kitty cat..." he murmured.

At hearing Marik call him a kitty, Bakura forced himself tostop enjoying being petted, push Marik's arm off of him, and take a step away. Marik looked at him in confusion.

"Not a bloody kitty!"

Marik giggled and pointed to Bakura's hair. "Then why do you have cat ears?" he asked.

"Marik, they're not cat ears. Or bunny ears. They're batwings," he explained, thinking Marik was referring to his hair. "What are you talking about?" Bakura looked up, but obviously couldn't see anything. He reached up to his hair and felt around. He felt something hard, yet fuzzy, that was definitely not hair. He followed the form of the object until his hand reached a fuzzy triangle sticking up from what must have been some kind of headband. He examined the triangle with his fingers before finally realizing what it was he was wearing on his head.

"Marik..." he said in an extremely annoyed and angry tone.

Marik giggled again. "Yes, Bakitty?" he teased.

"Why the bloody buggering hell are there a pair of cat ears on my head?" he asked in a raspy voice, choosing to ignore the nickname 'Bakitty'.

"Because you look so cute with them on!" Marik smiled.

Bakura glared at him.

Marik could have sworn he saw a dark purple aura forming around him. But he couldn't take him seriously!

"Oh lighten up, Fluffy. You can murder me later. For now let's just deal with Kuriby."

"Fine... Also, Marik?"

"Yes?"

Bakura blushed. "I just want to say that... Even though I told you that I love you, I-" He sighed and smirked. "Well I still hate you." He removed the cat ears from his head and threw them at Marik's face. Marik caught them just barely. "You wanker."

Marik smiled. "That's fine with me."

The two villans walked into the building.

* * *

**Kudos to you if you know the significance of the password, the key ****shapes, and the fireball.**

**And kudos to me for the nickname "Bakitty" and for making Bakura like being petted by Marik!**

**Also I'd like to clarify something for you. Kuriby's name is pronounced like ****Kuriboh, but with an "ee" sound instead of an "oh" sound.**

**And just to give you a list of past and soon to come deleted and bonus scenes:  
The Prank Aftermath  
In A Soul Hallway  
How To Prononce A Kitten  
The Party**

* * *

The party has been moved to its own separate chapter, due to spacing issues, so you still have an opporinity to be on the "invited" list.

On the Invited list so far are:  
RandomSpazz-chan  
Miss Macabre Grey  
Brennason  
Serendipital  
bakurafangirlforever

* * *

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEEEE~!**


	15. 14: Long-Awaited Party and a Note

**IM SORRY FOR BEING GONE FOR SO LONG PLEASE FORGIVE ME!**

**Here is the party!**

**I decided to put it in it's own chapter because it would ruin the end**  
**of the last chapter. So here we are!**

**Sorry if I failed at ur personalities because I just bassed them of**  
**how you talked in your reviews!**

**The party technically is still not really done, but i had to give it to you becasue I promised and because I haven't updated in so long I feel like I need to explain stuff to you and start workign on the next chapter (Marik and Bakura taking Kuriby to the vet). Also I didn't feel like fixing the lines and i think it looks much neater like this anyway...FORGIVE ME!**

**R&P (read and party)**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Now it's time for the party!

Woo hoo!

These are the people who specifically asked or I invited to be in the  
party:  
RandomSpazz-chan  
Miss Macabre Grey  
Brennason  
Serendipital  
bakurafangirlforever  
You guys are all invited. But I accept party crashers!

_Hey, Aquailita, can I be in this chapter party? I'm bored while  
waiting for my Yami to let me out._

Of course you can, Ryou!  
*huggles him*

_Aquailita, you're squeezing me..._

Sorry, Ry.  
*releases him*  
*speaks to all of you*  
Oh by the way, if you hadn't figured it out already, the italicized  
words were Yami Bakura's, the underlined parts were Ryou, and the  
italicized AND underlined parts were Ishizu. Just to clear that up.

Yeah so let's get this part started!

*turns on music and starts dancing*

}Hey can I join too?{

Joey? Why are you here?  
By the way the ones in the }and{ are Joey.

}I'm hiding from the Pharaoh. Remember that bonus scene you posted?{

Uh huh.  
*goes to set up pizza and tacos while he's talking*

}Well, he's looking for me so he can Mind Crush me! So I'm hiding at  
your party.{

Well okay. You can stay. But only if you sing Brooklyn Rage for us.  
*calls Hair Guy and asks his hair to make its special awesome tasting  
punch*

}But I don't say "Nyeh" or "Brooklyn Rage" in this fanfic. You said so  
in one of the beginning chapters! You didn't make us THAT abridged.{

I don't bloody care! Just sing you Brooklyn Furry!

}First of all, I am not a furry.{

*mumbles*  
You are in this fanfic.

}Second of all, don't start saying British things or I'm not doing  
sh*t for you.{

_Aquailita, why is that Brooklyn Furry here?_

Hiding from Yami Yugi's Mind Crush.

_Let's kick the tosser out!_

Ryou!

}Hey wait! Thridly, why the hell did you invite Bakura?{

Call him "Ryou".

}Whatever. Why did you invite him here?{

Because he's awesome and cute and whatevers. Stop asking so many  
questions and sing!

}Alright fine!  
*goes up to microphone*  
*clears throat*  
*Brooklyn Rage music starts*  
o/' o/' o/' o/' o/'  
Nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh!  
Nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh!  
*continues singing*  
o/' o/' o/' o/' o/'{

*the punch arrives and the Hair Guy leaves*

/Hey can I party too?\

No! You cannot be here, Marik. Now get back in the story and start  
making out with Bakura or something!

/Why the hell would I want to make out with that albino furby? I'm  
totally str-\

Marik, we kinda already established that you are gay. So stop it  
already. And also you totally admitted that you were in love with  
Bakura. You know...

/...\  
/I thought we were just roleplaying because this is all under your  
control.\

"Nope. You really are gay."

/Oh okay then. I mean- Yes, I shall go make out with Bakura because he  
is such a sexy kitty cat. And then we'll fight later and then just  
make up and make out again. Um... Bye.\  
/*tries to leave*\  
/*is stopped*\

RandomSpazz-Chan- NOT SO FAST!

/Who the [EFF!] is this girl?\

"One of my guests. Just leave before she-"

RandomSpazz-Chan- OMG MARIK! I fuking luv u!  
*glomps Marik and starts having fangasms and spazzes all over him*

/Someone effing help me!\

_No, you tosser!_

/Whhyyyyyyyyyy noooooooot! You're so cruel!\

_Oh alright. Hey RandomSpazz-Chan, Joey is over there singing a  
Brooklyn Rage duet with Kaiba while wearing a dog suit._

RandomSpazz-Chan- Really?! Where?!  
*releases Marik and runs to go see.*

"Aparently she is very prone to spazzing."

bakurafangirlforvever- Hey!

"Hi, bakurafangirlforvever! How are you?!"

bakurafangirlforvever- Pretty good. where's Bakura?

"He wasn't invited because he was the annoying insert hacker."

_And because he tried to get rid of Kuriby in the last chapter._

"How do you know that?"

_Because he WOULD try to do that. He doesn't like animals._

bakurafangirlforever- Ryou! You'll have to do for now!  
*Begins petting him and asking about Yami Bakura*

_Ah! Well at least she's gentle... Fangirls scare me..._

"I know... I know..."

bakurafangirlforever-

/Ooh! I want to sing! Joey is done! So my turn! Hey Ryou, let's go up  
there and sing Leather Pants!\

_Please don't. I don't need that kind of embarassment._

/Oh relax it'll be fine!\

_But you need to get back to the story..._

/Shut up, Ryourik!\

_Stop bloody calling me that!_

/No!\

RandomSpazz-Chan- No he's not! Now Marik get back in the story before  
I glomp you again!

"And before I glomp you too! Ryou stays where he wants!"

/Okay! fine!\  
*mumbles*  
/Effing fangirls\

_I told you I had more fangirls on my side than you!_

"Ryou, don't be mean or I will glomp you too."

_Eek! Okay!_

/*leaves*\

"Everyone keep partying and stuff and enjoy yourselves! Imma go over  
somewhere else and do stuffs."

(Sorry everyone if I fail at ur personalities. I'm just going off what  
I think ou might be like based on your reviews.)

_Why does it feel like months suddenly passed in the last few seconds?_

"Because I'm a fail author like Bakura said I was..."

_No you're not!_

"Thanks Ry, but I've neglected this story for too long... Now excuse me..."

_oh okay..._

*goes somewhere*

*comes back*

And the party goes on for whatever more amount of time...

* * *

**A little secret: obviously I knew that Yami Bakura was the insert**  
**hacker because obviously I made him do that. It started in chapter 3**  
**when I decided to make him give you a message for me. Then it just**  
**somehow escalated into being him making random inserts while he was**  
**stuck in the ring and waiting to have his character show up in the**  
**story, which happened in chapter 11. Also Ryou was making random**  
**comments as well and Ishizu made a random appearance also. Some people**  
**actually commented on him and I pretended to not know what they were**  
**talking about. Only like two of my reviewers knew the situation**  
**because I told them. But everything is fine now. I will delete some of**  
**his comments that are very disruptive in the story.**

**But everything is all super-special-awesome now! Sorry if you read it**  
**while the comments were still there and they ruined the story for you.**  
**If you go back, you should see some of the more useless ones gone.**

**AND ALSO SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT!**  
**I have like a chapter in creation for next chapter, but I kinda ran out of ideas for it. Either I can just work on it more and give it to you when it's ready, you guys can give me suggestions for what you want to happen or what you think should or might happen, I can give you the chapter as it is and you can help me think of how to finish it, or I can just do some random thiefshipping bull crap. I don't know. I've neglected this for too long and now I'm at a loss. **  
**HELP ME OUT GUYS!**

**The next chapter, Bakura (reluctantly) and Marik are taking Kuriby to the vet like Ryou wanted them to. How will it all turn out?**

**I have no friggin clue.**

**Thanks for attending!**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEE~!**


	16. 15: At The Vet At Last

**Hello again once more for another time!  
(Give me time to think of a better chapter title, as well as fix all the other chapter titles, if they need to be fixed)**

**SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! It's been like...what? Five-six months? Sorry! Mostly I haven't been working on it because of school, personal stuff, other fanfics, and lack of ideas. But I'm back now and ready to roll!**

**At first, the reason why I stopped working on this chapter was because I didn't know what went on and what procedures take place at the vet. But now, I'm just winging it and having an "I don't care" attitude about it so I can actually finish the chapter for you people.**

**A quick recap: After taking control of his body again, Bakura tells ****Marik that he can still accompany him to the vet for Kuriby. In he ****hopes that Yami Bakura takes over again, Marik accepts. Along the way, ****Bakura interrogates Marik about his relationship with Yami Bakura and ****asks him to explain some of the stuff they do together. When they ****arrive, Marik notices Yami Bakura's iPod and Bakura decides to return ****it. When he goes back into their soul hallway to do so, Yami Bakura ****locks him in again and takes over. Marik and Yami Bakura reluctantly ****agree to complete Bakura's original goal of getting Kuriby checked out.**

**So yeah. We'll see how this goes.**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

"Maybe you should let your host out, Bakura," Marik suggested. "After all he _is_ the one who wanted to come here and knows what he's here for."

"No. Absolutely not."

"Why not?"

"Do you really think I ever let him out just because someone asks me to? No. I don't. And I'm tired of him being the main character. And didn't you originally want me in control?"

"Well, yes but..."

Bakura facepalmed. "I get it. You've started to actually like Kuriby and you think that I'm going to hurt him. Well stop thinking that. Oh and hold on."

He reached into his back pocket and took something out. He waved it in front of Marik so he could see what it is.

Marik gasped. "How did you get that back? I thought it dematerialized or something like that."

Bakura grinned. "Just a little something that I know about us that even Yugi and the Pharaoh don't know." He put the iPod away. Then he frowned. "So I suppose you'll be doing the talking?"

Marik nodded. "Uh-huh."

Marik and Bakura both waited on the side for a minute or two while the person who was at the main desk was seeing to another client. When she was free, they walked over to her.

"Good afternoon, sirs," she greeted them. "How may I help you?"

Marik began speaking. "We're here to-"

"Get rid of this kitten," Bakura interrupted. "We hate it and don't want it anymore."

"Bakura!" Marik slapped Bakura's arm. "Ignore him. We're here to set up an appointment to get this kitten checked out."

"Walk-ins, then? Take a number and wait to be called in." The woman pointed to a number dispenser on the wall next to the front desk. Bakura snatched a number from it and dragged Marik over to the waiting area.

After a minute of standing because Bakura didn't want to sit, Marik was starting to wonder why Bakura didn't want to let Ryou do this if he didn't want to do it himself. He looked over at Bakura and noticed that he looked irritated and bored at the same time.

Marik poked his face. "Hey," he whispered. "What's wrong, Fluffy? You look bored and irritated."

Bakura slapped his hand away. "Don't call me that in public. And I _am_ bored. And irritated that I have to just stand here and tolerate all of these animals."

"What about the humans in the room? Can you tolerate them?"

"I already said that I can't tolerate the 'animals' in the room. And seriously, why can't we just ditch the buggering little demon?"

"One, because I promised Ryou I would do what he came here to do for this kitten. Two, because I think I'm actually starting to like him. Three, because he's adorable."

"And _why_ do you think he's adorable?"

"Because he looks like you and _you_ are adorable." He smiled hopefully at Bakura and even made a show of batting his eyelids.

Bakura smirked and looked away. "Stop trying to seduce me. It's not working."

Marik frowned. "It's not?"

"Nope. But anyway, back to why we're doing this. Why are you doing this just because you promised my host? What are you, his friend?!"

"I um... Well..." Marik considered that for a moment before replying, "You know what! Yes! I am!"

"Well, nice to know that, because you're not seeing him again."

"Why not?" Marik said somewhat sadly.

"Oh? You're being serious about being his friend? Why do you think? If I kept you from meeting him for this long, what makes you think I'm ever letting him back out around you again? He would probably get bored and try to randomly come out while we're talking or something." The thought of that made Bakura think of something _else_ Ryou might accidentally intrude in. Something with Marik... "Marik, Did you know that technically..." He whispered something into Marik's ear.

Marik blinked in surprise. "Well that was kinda... Um... Random. No I didn't. W-why? And why technically?"

Bakura smirked at him. "Because..." More whispering. "...and only technically because..." Whispering again.

"Wha- OOOOOHHHHHHHHH." Marik got it after a few seconds. But why was Bakura mentioning something like that? "And you're telling me this because...?"

"So...what about you?"

"Bakura..." Marik whispered, his eyes darting around the room to make sure no one was listening. "Why are we randomly talking about this in public? There are people around."

"That's what I say every time you call me 'Fluffy'." Bakura suddenly looked at his wrist, at a watch he didn't have. "Hey, Marik, guess who I am." He stared at the non-existant watch. "I wonder what time it is. Super special awesome."

Marik smiled again. "A midget that deserves to die and/or go to the Shadow Realm?"

Bakura looked up at Marik and grinned. "Exactly. Except there is no 'or'." Then he looked around the room. His face grew agitated. "Ugh. But seriously. I'm bored. And growing impatient. I don't have time for this."

"And exactly _what_ were you doing before this happened that you're so eager to get back to?"

"Not that I'm eager to get back to it, but before this I was busy being trapped in the Millenium Ring as an 'Insert Hacker' that inserted random comments into the story because I had nothing better to do and because Aquailita was being stupid..."

"Wait...what?"

"I'll tell you more later. For now, we have a kitten to get checked."

"Uh, hello? Bakura? Do you not see the room?" Marik pointed at all of the other people in the waiting room. "It's not our turn yet. We have time..."

"Well I don't have patience. I'm not an animal person and would prefer to leave sooner rather than later so I don't have to spend time around any of the living things in this room. Besides you, of course."

"I know that. But there are still other people in front of us."

Bakura smirked evilly. "Not for long..."

Bakura pushed himself off the wall, walked to the center of the room, and drew attention to himself by making the Millenium Ring glow really brightly.

When all of the pets and humans quieted, he began speaking. "Okay, you pathetic mortals and your domesticated creature companions, listen up. I want to play a little game with all of you... I want a show of hands. Who here knows about Duel Monsters?"

Everyone was paying attention, but no one raised their hands or said yes.

Bakura's evil smirk grew. "Perfect. Guess what? I challenge everyone in this room to a Shadow Game. Excluding Marik, Kuriby, and the Receptionist."

"Bakura! What are you doing!" "Shortening the line."

The room darkened and a dark purple shadowy fog filled the room. Some of the animals in the room started acting up and making noise, as did the small children in the room who were scared. Bakura took a card from the bottom of his deck, then called upon a box and made the box appear. He placed the card inside the box. "Alright everyone! The rules are simple. In this box is my favorite card! Whoever can guess what card is in here gets to leave with their soul intact. Who's first?"

"Uh... I don't wanna play, please?" one of the children asked.

Bakura grinned maliciously at the child. "Nope. Not an option. No one opts out. Let the Shadow Game begin! And did I mention that if you lose the game, you lose your soul?"

* * *

_~Later~_

By the time the game was over, not a single person had guessed right and only one person guessed an actual card from the game. The Shadow Realm faded away, taking everyone's soul with it excluding Bakura's, Marik's, Kuriby's, and the receptionist's. And since Bakura never said that the pets were pardoned from playing, their souls were taken as well by default of not even answering the question. But Marik forced him to spare the soul one of the bird's that looked a lot like Mr. Tweetums, which he decided to steal.

Bakura walked over to the front desk and peered over it. He knew that the woman was huddling underneath it.

"Ahem?" he said to get her attention.

She peeked her head out from behind the desk. "W-w-wwwwell, I guess that since you are the only ones left to go next, you are next. The previous walk-in should be done just about now, so there is a spot available for you. Here is the room number. It is the third blue door on the right." She handed Bakura a number and ducked under the counter to hide.

Bakura smirked evilly, completely satisfied with the results of his Shadow Game. "Heheheh. I appreciate your cooperation. Your soul will be one of the _last_ thousand to be consumed by the Shadow Realm during the Zorc apocalypse. Let's get this over with, Marik." Bakura turned to the hallway and started looking for the right door.

Marik stood up and quickly followed him. "Right! Let's go, Mr. Tweetums!" The small bird followed him.

* * *

**~Transitiony~**

* * *

They passed the previous walk-in. Moments later, they heard a horrified scream. Bakura smirked evilly again.

They reached the door.

Bakura opened the door to the room they were supposed to go to. The man there looked up, startled by the sudden intrusion. "What are you doing here? I am supposed to see someone next who has an appointment, not another walk-in. You are going to have to wait in the waiting room."

"Oh, we can't do that," Bakura told him. "Everyone else who had an appointment, as well as the rest if the walk-ins, has mysteriously died. So we are the only ones left. Marik, you take care of this. I'm waiting outside." He exited the room and headed for the waiting room, leaving Marik, Kuriby, the stolen pet, and the vet. Marik watched him go and rolled his eyes.

"Um... Was that one of my patients?" the vet asked. Then he looked at Kuriby and asked, "And is that his brother?"

Marik burst out laughing. "No! This is Kuriby. He's not ours. His current owner found him on he street two days ago and wants to make sure he's healthy and stuff. You do your doctory-vettery thing and I'll wait right outside the door." Marik put Kuriby on the examining table, then left and took the new Mr. Tweetums with him.

The vet shook his head and sighed. "Those two are so weird." He turned to Kuriby...

* * *

**~Transitiony!~**

* * *

Marik suddenly decided that he _didn't_ want to wait right outside the door. He went to go see what Bakura was up to. He assumed that Bakura had gone back to the waiting room, so he headed there.

He found Bakura standing in the middle of the room, staring at all of the soulless bodies around the room.

"Kura," Marik said to get his attention.

Bakura turned around. "What?" he asked in a monotone.

"The vet is doing his vetty things. Came to check on you. What are you doing?"

Bakura turned back around. "Nothing much. Just admiring my handiwork... And still bored."

"The guy thought that you were Kuriby's brother," Marik told him, trying to get some kind of reaction and emotion out of him.

"I expected as much..."

"..." Marik walked over to him to see his face. Bakura's eyes were closed. He looked a bit...sad and tired.

His eyes widened. When did Bakura suddenly get so...

"[EFF!] off, Mr. Tweetums II," Marik said to the small bird on his shoulder.

The bird nodded at him, then flew away and back down the hall.

Marik put a hand on Bakura's shoulder and asked quietly, "Bakura... Are you okay?"

Bakura lowered his head and sighed. "I'm just..tired and agitated, I guess... It took me about ten chapters to get out, and now we're stuck running errands for my host and running around with a kitten that hates me and that I don't like... Sure, plots take time and things don't just automatically happen but... I don't even know. I just want to be done with this so that we can get out of here, drop Kuriby off at home, then maybe go and-" Marik cut him off by putting a finger to his lips. "Shush," he said quietly. "Calm down."

"Mar-"

Marik put both of his hands on Bakura's shoulders and gently turned him so that they were face-to-face. "Sssshhhh," he said before wrapping his arms around Bakura's waist, pressing their bodies close together, and gently kissing Bakura on the lips.

Bakura tensed up at first. Marik continued kissing him gently. He felt the Brit's body gradually relax. Bakura finally started kissing back.

Then Marik moved one hand up to Bakura's hair and started petting him. After a moment or two, Bakura began making those cat-like purring noises again. Bakura's hands suddenly went to Marik's butt. Then they quickly moved up to Marik's hair, then left quickly again and finally came to rest on Marik's sides.

Marik had no idea of the purpose of that, but didn't care.

Still petting Bakura, Marik ended the kiss first. He smiled reassuringly at the spirit and asked, "Feeling better?" He moved his hand away from Bakura's hair so he could answer properly without him purring.

Bakura smiled and closed his eyes. With a nod, he replied, "Much. Thanks for that. I needed that." He took a step away, opened his eyes, and looked at Marik from head to toe. "By the gods you're sexy."

Marik grinned. "Tell me something I don't know."

"Okay." He pointed at the front desk. "The receptionist over there peeked her head out and saw us kissing. Then she fainted. Not a fan of yaoi, I suppose."

Marik looked at where Bakura was pointing. He saw no one there. Either Bakura was right or she was still hiding. Either way, it didn't really matter. "Meh. I don't care. How would you know that anyway?"

"Because shut up."

"Omr Bakura don't be lame like Ishizu. How did you know?"

"Because shut up. And she isn't all that lame... Much. After all it _is_ thanks to her that you're here with me...in a way..."

"I know. Because she called... Wait a second how do you know about that?"

"Because I was stuck watching this crapfest of a fanfic while trapped in the Millenium Ring and nailed to a wall with nothing to do but make irritating comments."

"Oh, right. You said you were going to tell me about that, didn't you?"

"I guess. So what happened first was-"

They were interrupted by the sound of a bird making noise. Marik stepped away from Bakura and turned to Mr. Tweetums II. "What is it, Mr. Tweetums II?! Can't you see I'm busy?"

The bird tweeted a response that Bakura didn't understand.

"Seriously?" Marik asked. "I guess we lost track of time while we were..." he turned his head to the side and looked at Bakura, his smirk partly visible, "...distracted." The smirk faded and he continued listening to the bird.

Bakura wanted to ask why Marik was able to understand the bird, but it might actually be saying something important, so he kept quiet.

"Oh okay. We'll go now." He turned to Bakura. "Apparently, they're-" He was cut off by Mr. Tweetums II telling him something else. Marik's eyes widened. "WHAT?! So that's... Bakura! You-" He put a hand on his hair, then pulled the kitty ears off. He waved them in Bakura's face. "What is the point of this? Why would you even..."

Bakura smirked. No doubt the bird had just informed Marik of the kitty ears on his head. "Haha. You probably already figured this out, but I put those on your head while we were kissing."

"Yeah. Well don't do that. It's annoying and they were meant for you, not for me."

"Oh is it really annoying? Payback's a bitch. Now what were you saying?"

"Hm..." Marik folded his arms and continued speaking. "Apparently, the vet is done with Kuriby."

Bakura's face lit up. "Seriously?! _Finally_! Thought it feels like it should have taken longer..."

"I know. Like I said, we must have lost track of time. Mr. Tweetums was on the door knob so he passed the message on to me. Let's go. We're almost done here."

Mr. Tweetums stood his place on Marik's right shoulder.

Marik took the cat ears and placed them firmly on Bakura's head. He led them there for a few seconds as he said with a stern look on his face, "_Leave_. _Them_. _There_."

Then, he started walking down the hall again.

Bakura rolled his eyes, adjusted the cat ears, then followed Marik down the hall.

* * *

Marik was already there, standing in the doorway.

"He is still a child, only six months old. And he acts like it, too."

Bakura moved next to Marik and was able to see into the room.

The vet stood next to the examining table, petting Kuriby who was on it. Kuriby was purring contentedly. "He is surprisingly healthy. Healthier than average and healthier than one might expect, considering when and where he was found. You say you found him on the street two days ago?"

"We did," Marik replied. "Well...a erm...friend of ours did. He couldn't be here so I'm here in his place."

"Okay...He is actually good to go. You can take him home right now, if you want."

At those words, Kuriby suddenly jumped off the table and ran over to Bakura. He looked up and examined Bakura's face. Bakura glared at him, saying with his eyes, "what do you want?". Kuriby glared right back and frowned (adorably), then ran over to Marik instead. He tapped Marik's leg.

Remembering the two times that Kuriby had scratched him, Marik automatically flinched. Startled by Marik's sudden movement, Kuriby flinched as well.

The vet noticed the bandage on Marik's leg and on Bakura's arm. He was curious... "Those injuries you two have..." everyone looked at him, including Kuriby. "Did Kuriby scratch you there?"

"Yes," Bakura replied. "And it's getting rather annoying."

"If you want me to give you advice on how-"

"Don't care." Bakura walked over to Kuriby and picked him up, shoved him into Marik's arms before he started complaining about who held him, then walked out the door. "Let's go, Marik."

Marik looked between the empty doorway, Kuriby, and the vet. "Erm... I guess we'll be going now..."

The vet was eyeing the bird. "Hey...I believe that your bird is supposed to be my next app-"

"BYE!" Marik shouted. He raced out the door.

* * *

**~Transitiony!~ (a lot of these, in this chapter...)**

* * *

Marik had déjà vu again. He emerged from the hallway and found Bakura standing in the center of the room. But this time, he was glaring at someone. The receptionist.

She appeared to have recovered from whatever she had recovered from and was glaring right back at Bakura, for some reason.

"What the frig are you tw-"

"SHUT UP!" they both shouted at him.

Marik shut up, and just watched them stare at each other.

Finally...

The receptionist slammed her hands on the desk and shouted "YES! YOU BLINKED! I WIN YOU ALBINO LIMEY FRUITCAKE!"

"Grrrrr..."

"You were having a staring contest?" Marik asked.

Bakura groaned as he turned to Marik. "Not really. She said I looked ridiculous with these cat ears on, so I started glaring at her. Then she started glaring back. She must have gone slightly insane from the trauma and the Shadows, because she isn't terrified of me anymore."

"Shut up!" the receptionist lady shouted.

"How about you shut up before I take you to the place that everyone else's soul in this room has gone and let you rot there for the rest of eternity!"

Her insanity must have worn off. Because the next moment, her face grew scared and traumatized again. "I-I-I thought you were going to _spare_ my soul."

Bakura thought about that. "True. But this isn't over."

"Uh...whatever...Can you just leave before I get in trouble or before someone comes and sees this place..."

"Yes. I forgot. I wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible. Come on, Marik." He motioned for Marik to follow, then headed out the door.

"Bakura! Wait! Why do you keep running ahead?!" He turned to the receptionist, who was staring dumbfoundedly after Bakura. With a smirk, he walked over to her and handed her two items. "That's my payment for your services."

She looked at the items. Then up at Marik. "But this is just a star chip and a locator card. They're useless!"

"Exactly. You're welcome."

He walked out of the veterinarian place.

* * *

**OMG SORRY FOR HAVING ABANDONED MY VERY FIRST YU-GI-OH FANFICTION, AS WELL AS MY FIRST THIEFSHIPPING STORY! **

**Bakura is whispering for two reasons:  
1) He obviously doesn't want anyone to hear.  
2) Because what I originally had there in place of the whispering was a little off/weird and I didn't know how to word/fix it, so I decided just to let you people wonder what they were talking about ;)**

**It's been too long and looking back on it now, I can really see how much I've changed as a fanfic writer and a YGO and YGOTAS fan, and I'm honestly proud of how far I've come. To keep this story's value as my first story and as a timeline of my progress, I won't go back and edit ANYTHING in the previous chapters. New rule: once a month has passed since a chapter has been uploaded, I won't edit it anymore. But this rule will only apply to ThiefSlipping.  
****Thanks to everyone who has stayed with this story, and thank you to all my followers and favoriters who have just heard about this story, and thanks to all the newcomers who have made it this far putting up with my crap XD. If you are new to my stuff, please go check out my other stories. They're much better than this one, trust me. But this story will always be one of my favorites because it was my first and I've learned so much through it.  
****(If you want to know, my _first_ fanfictions were Hetalia.)**

**Next chapter (because I promised), you'll get to see the bonusy scene of what happened in the Bakuras' hallway. I've also been withholding that from you for too long.  
the chapter after that...well...I don't know yet. I have a little bit written for it... BUT I WON'T ABANDON THIS STORY FOR THAT MANY MONTHS! Next update after the next chapter should happen within the month (next month, I mean. May). Hopefully.**

**See you next chapter! **

**BYEEEEEEEEEEE~!**


	17. 13,5: In The Hallway

**Time for more bonuses! Yay!**

**This time, it's a deleted scene. I owed you this. This is what takes ****place between Ryou and Yami Bakura while they're in their soul hallway.**

**The scene was too long and it broke the humorous and annoying mood, so ****I took it out. But it was too awesome to get rid of, so I put it here ****for you all.**

**Later, I will probably take all of the bonus scenes and put them all ****in one chapter, indicating what time of the storyline they occur in. Maybe.**

**Here, I replaced "Bakura" with "Yami Bakura" and "Ryou" with "Bakura", ****just to make it more appropriate and set the mood more. Also some ****details and words have been slightly modified.**  
**Since this is several months old, it was different from how I would ****actually write it today. I don't really like how I wrote this and I am tempted to change a lot of it. But I didn't change TOO much because I wanted ****to give you the chapter as I had written it. I barely even changed the ANs.**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Bakura saw that his yami's door was still locked and closed. However his own door was slightly ajar and not locked at all.

Bakura took a deep breath and slowly walked towards the door. He gently pushed it open, poked his head inside, and looked around.

"Yami?" he called. "You in here? I have your AHHHHHHHHH!"

He was suddenly attacked from the right. Yami Bakura had been pressed up against the wall on the opposite side of the door frame from the door.

He grabbed Bakura from behind and held him in a headlock with his right arm. "You have some nerve showing up here so soon," he whispered in his hikari's ear. "Any sooner and I would have been in an even worse mood. Now what do you want from me?"

Bakura gulped and shivered. "Um. I-I have your..." His hand started shaking. So much that he dropped the iPod. It clattered to the floor and both of them automatically glanced at it.

Yami Bakura stared at the fallen item. "So, you stole my iPod."

He bent down to pick it up, taking Bakura with him. Bakura winced when his yami made him bend down awkwardly.

Yami Bakura held the device in his hand. He chuckled. "How did that happen?" He pressed the button and slid his finger across the screen. The home screen automatically popped up instead of asking for the password. "And you figured out the password too. You little thief. I'll have to change it later. Under different circumstances, I would say that I was proud of you. But I'm not."

Bakura grabbed his yami's arm. "Let go please!" he cried out. "You're hurting me!"

"Oh really?" Yami Bakura held on tighter. Bakura cried out in pain. "I didn't notice."

"Sh-shut up! Let me go! You got your bloody iPod back now let me go. You know that I have the strength to make you let go."

"Or do you?" Yami Bakura asked him. He put his iPod in his back pocket. "Do you really have the strength to physically overpower me?"

Bakura gulped again. He was probably in for it tonight... If he wasn't able to ditch the Ring again, that is. "I did it before. What makes you think I can't do it now?"

Yami Bakura laughed. "Maybe this?" He grabbed Bakura's wrist and dug his nails into it.

"AHH!" Bakura shouted. "Why are you still keeping me here? What do you want from me?!"

Yami Bakura released his hikari from the headlock but kept ahold of his wrist. He turned him around so that they were face-to-face.

Light stared at Dark.  
Yami stared at Hikari.

Yami Bakura smirked. "My little hikari, the same thing I always want you for."

Bakura knew exactly what that was. "My body?" he breathed.

"Yes. I want your body." Yami Bakura paused. "Wait a minute... That sounded way too tendershippy. Let me try again." He cleared his throat and started again. "I'm taking control of our body again."

"No!" Bakura shouted angrily. "Let me have a day or two more for myself."

Yami Bakura shook his head. "No. Sorry, Ryou, but I'm not letting you go back out there." His expression softened. "However I do see why you hate me locking you in here. It's a mess in here. And not dark enough. But I like all the hiding places. Makes it more fun for me." Yami Bakura dragged Bakura away from the door, still keeping eye contact.

Bakura would have tried to escape by now, but he was frozen in fear by the look in his Yami's eyes. If only he could look away, he would find the courage to escape.

"But I'm serious." Yami Bakura frowned. "You don't like being locked up in here, do you? Alone and powerless without any way to get back to reality. Back in control. Back to life. Am I correct?"

Bakura only nodded, not breaking eye contact.

"Well let's just say that I also don't like being locked up in here either. Do you think I enjoyed being stuck in that bloody Millenium Ring that was nailed to a bloody wall for twelve boring chapters and three days in screentime and almost a month in real world time, especially when I had once been locked away in it for thousands of years in total darkness and silence?! And then being locked out of my private soul room after being interrupted from a very meaningful conversation and having one of my only distractions stolen from me? No! It was awful. And boring. And it was worse because I let _you_ of all people overpower me and make those last three happen!" His frown deepened. "I'm not lying when I say that I feel a bit sorry for you for being like that when I do it to you."

"Seriously, Yami?" Bakura asked shyly. "Do you really mean that?"

The yami closed his eyes. "Yes. I do..."

_Tendershipping?_ Bakura wondered. _Wait! The password! 7986. If I look at the letters instead of the numbers, the it would be PQRS, WXYZ, MNO, and TUV... The third letter in each of them spells RYOV. Wait that doesn't mean anything. Unless the last letter is actually a U, not a V._ Bakura gasped. _So his iPod password is my last name? Why? Oh my... I believe this is called tendershipping._

"You believe what is called what now?" Yami Bakura opened his eyes.

"Huh?" Bakura broke away from his thoughts. "What? I didn't say anything."

Yami Bakura lightly tapped the side of his own head and gently smacked the side of Bakura's head. "F*cking mind link you stupid limey hikari."

"But you're British too..."

"Don't you even _dare_ try that with me! We went over this! I'm only British because you are British. I'm actually Egyptian. You know that. And that's not even the point! Stop changing the subject!"

"But I only did it once..."

"I don't care! And no! This is _not_ tendershipping! I don't actually care about you! Sure I still protect you, but only because it's convenient for me. Also because it keeps you happy and positive emotions aren't as strong as negative emotions, so you're weaker against me. Basically I have more power over you if you haven't been crying _before_ I deal with you."

Yami Bakura's words still brought the same emotions on Bakura that conversations like this always did. Fear and defenselessness. But there was one small detail that made this much more bearable. "Yami, why are you blushing ever so slightly?"

"What?" With his free hand, Yami Bakura lightly touched his cheek and felt for heat. He felt none against his hand, but felt the heat on his face. "Shut up!" He pushed Bakura's arm such that the rest of his body followed. Somewhat conveniently, thought it was actually very planned by the yami, he landed in a chair at just the right moment to not get hurt or tip over.

"Are you done being a little idiot?" Yami Bakura asked his hikari angrily.

Bakura only nodded.

"Now... As I was saying. I kinda see why you hate me locking you up so much." Bakura expected Yami Bakura's face to soften up again, but it actually turned into a hard stare. And a humorous smirk. "But the thing is that I do it to you because it's fun. You do it to me because it's necessary and comforting and makes you feel safe and is possibly healthy for you. Well I was never one to care about what you needed or wanted. Your safety? It depends. The only thing I care about is your physical health. So eat your vegetables, excercise every day, don't stab yourself, and stay totally miserable!"

He walked over to Bakura and started searching him. "What in the name of buggery are you doing to me?" Bakura shouted. He wasn't tied to the chair or anything, but he still didn't dare move. His yami's hand suddenly stopped moving over one of his back pockets. He felt a bulge being slid out of it.

Yami Bakura moved his hand in front of Bakura's face and waved the item in his hands.

Bakura examined it. It was a key. But the design of it was peculiar. It looked like two pointy t's stacked on top of each other. _Where have I seen that design before?_ he wondered. _It must be the key to his soul room. I've seen it only once before earlier today, but I've never examined it before._

"Don't you even think of asking me about it." Yami Bakura stood up straight and left Bakura's soul room. He walked to the other side of the hallway and unlocked his own door.

Bakura watched from his seat, which faced straight out the door, as his yami turned around and smiled evilly. He opened the door.

Yami Bakura reached into his pocket and took something out. He held up the key to Bakura's soul room.

_'I still have yours_,_' _the yami thought.

Bakura heard him and gasped internally. _'Not again...'_

_'Yes again.'_ "But first," he said aloud. He called upon a memory that lay unwanted from deep within his room. Then he brought out a ball of fire from it. He flung it into Bakura's soul room.

Bakura flinched backwards so fast that he accidentally tipped the chair over. His head his the floor hard. He rubbed his head with one hand and helped himself sit up with the other. His eyes widened when he saw the fire in front of the door, between him and the hallway.

Yami Bakura laughed as he walked over to the door, unaffected by the fire in front of it. He put a hand on the doorknob and locked it in front of Bakura's eyes. "See you later," he taunted. He removed the key and closed the door.

Bakura stared at the fire silently. He rolled off the fallen chair and crept cautiously towards the blaze, which thankfully seemed to have a set size and wasn't spreading or growing. He crept closer and slowly stuck a hand out. He kept a foot away, but could still feel the heat. Apparently it would only hurt him, not anything else. But where had it come from?

It came from Yami Bakura's soul room, so it must have come from a memory or current emotion. He had a feeling that the key's shape and the fire might be connected. But in what way?

_Well that fire isn't going to move or shrink any time soon, so I have plenty of time to think about it. He obviously did that so I couldn't pick the lock again, so I'll just have to wait in here untill he decides to let me out._

Still outside, the yami listened in on the thoughts of his poor, defenseless, and trapped hikari. He was both amused and upset by the things he thought of. But he ignored it.

He took Bakura's key and threw it inside his soul room. Then he locked the door and put his scar-shapped key in his back pocket and walked out of their soul hallway.

He took control of Bakura's body once more.

* * *

**So there you go! I hope you enjoyed the scene.**

**Yami Bakura is being very honest when he says that there is no ****tendershipping here. He only cares about Ryou being physically healthy ****enough for Yami Bakura himself not to feel it or be affected by it. ****Think of Battle City. He lets Ryou get stabbed in the arm severely, ****but doesn't let him get injured by an attack from a god card. The ****inference to be made here is that Yami Bakura doesn't give a damn about ****whether Ryou is stabbed or not, but doesn't want him in a coma that ****could paralyze both of them.**

**I'm all for teh awesomeness of tendershipy! But in this situation, it ****doesn't exist. Also there is no angstshipping. Marik just gets ****confused sometimes about who is who. Which is why the fanfic is called ****THIEFSlipping, not AngstSlipping or TenderSlipping. And just for the record, there also will be ****no Psychoshipping. Or Bronzeshipping. Okay, I've ****covered all of the shipping disclaimers.**

**Anyway.**

**I'll start updating weekly from now on, like I do with my other stories, so that I don't get off track or take too long to update. But I'm only doing this because I already have the next several chapers done. **

**See you next chapter! **

**BYEEEEEEEEEEE~!**


	18. 16: Back To Ryou

**Holars amigars! (and amigors!)**

**I'm going to start doing my usual updating schedule: updating once a week by default, and twice a week when chapters are really short or when I'm in a good SSA mood. And like I said, I'm not editing chapters anymore after they've been up for a month.**

**A quick recap: After trapping Bakura in his soul room, Yami Bakura reluctantly agrees to take Kuriby to the vet with Marik. Yami Bakura plays a Shadow Game to shorten the line, Marik finds a new Mr. Tweetums, and they take Kuriby in. Once they find out that Kuriby is perfectly healthy and stuff, Yami Bakura rushes them out.**

**So ya! Let's see what happens now! Thiefshipping! Obviously. Or is it?!  
****Baku gets a bit angsty in this chapter! Everyone give him review hugs! **

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Instead of finding Bakura having run off ahead of him, Marik found Bakura waiting right outside.

"For once, you didn't run off," Marik said to him.

"You're welcome. So now that we're done here, what do we do with the cat?"

"Erm... I don't know..." Marik held Kuriby in front of him and looked him in the eyes. Kuriby stared back, his eyes saying, 'what are you looking at'.

Then Kuriby looked at Marik's right shoulder and licked his lips.

Marik knew what he was staring at. "Bakura, take your host's kitten," he ordered.

"Wha?! Why the bugger would I do that?"

"He's eyeing Mr. Tweetums with a hungry look on his face. Take him before he attacks me or Mr. Tweetums."

"No! You deal with him. Just keep a tight grip on him."

"Either you take the cat or you take the bird."

Bakura considered this. "I...will...take the...cat."

"That's what I thought. Here."

Marik passed Kuriby to Bakura.

"But the moment he tries to hurt me, you take him back."

"Fine. Whatever."

Bakura held Kuriby at arm's length and glared at him.

Kuriby glared right back.

"Listen up, furball," Bakura said to him, "I may not be your owner but I'm in his body. So if you don't want to hurt _him_, I highly suggest you don't hurt _me_. You got that?!"

Kuriby's eyes widened. He seemed to have understood. He nodded once.

"Good." He bright Kuriby close to him and turned to Marik. "So what are we going to do now? Ryou is trapped in his soul room, so he won't be bothering us anymore until I let him out."

"Okay. Was whatever you did to him really necessary?"

"It was. And it was fair. He locked me out of my soul room so I locked him _in_ his soul room."

"Hmm...I don't think I'll ever fully understand the relationship between you two."

"Good. I don't _want_ you to understand it. I know that he interrogated you. What did he ask you and what did you tell him?"

"Erm... It's a long story..."

Bakura grabbed Marik's hand, making sure Kuriby was firmly held with the other hand, and started leading him somewhere. "We have time. Let's go somewhere. You can tell me along the way."

* * *

And that is how Marik ended up telling Bakura about his entire conversation with Ryou on the way to the vet, and how they ended up sitting on a bench near the edge of the park.

Bakura facepalmed and groaned and sighed for the fortieth time. "At least you didn't tell him about the obligatory and subtle thiefshipping that was constantly going on."

"Right."

"Ugh... This is getting too complicated... I wish this whole thing had never happened. I wish that Ryou hadn't been let out unexpectedly, I wish he had never found Kuriby, I wish Ishizu hadn't called you, I wish that he hadn't nailed the Ring to the wall, and please don't be offended by this but I wish that you hadn't come back with me to Japan."

"But why?"

Bakura leaned back, closed his eyes, put a hand on his forehead, and sighed again. "Because things wouldn't be so complicated. He wouldn't have met you and you wouldn't have had to explain anything. I didn't want you two to meet for a reason. Now my host is involved with _us_, not just me, and he knows more than I want him to. He's starting to fight back against me and defy me, which I don't like. He just has too much information and access to us! He'll probably try to spy on the next evil council and might end up coming back home and telling Yugi about what has been going on. He's closer to those four than it appears. As far as the YGOTAS show goes, they don't give a sh*t about him. Bu overall in this fanfic, he's closer to them than I would like. Too much has changed. And going back to us, I would have honestly been fine with not knowing if you loved me or not. Things weren't complicated when I didn't know. Sure, they were annoying. But at least nothing was complicated between us. I just realized that in the next several dozen YGOTAS videos, we'll still have to pretend like none of this ever happened. You're going to have to pretend like you're still in denial about your sexuality, I'm going to have to keep spitting out subtle thiefshipping references, we're going to have to pretend like we aren't in a relationship... Ugh! This is all such a mess! Why did this have to happen! This is all Yugi's fault! Somehow. No wait... It's Kuriby's fault. Or maybe Ryou's. Okay... It's Yugi's fault, Kuriby's fault, _and_ Ryou's fault. There. Now I have three people to blame besides you and I. It all works out..."

Bakura suddenly realized that he had been talking for a while. The whole while he had been talking, he hadn't noticed Kuriby playing around with the Millenium Ring. He opened his eyes and waited for Marik to say something. Marik was just looking at him, a concerned expression on his face.

"You done ranting yet?" Marik asked.

"Yes," Bakura replied. He closed his eyes again.

"Good."

Bakura felt something bothering his neck. He reached under his hair and briefly scratched the back of his neck.

Then he noticed Kuriby playing with the Millenium Ring. He gently slapped the kitten's paw away from it. "Stop that."

"Meaow..."

"You know what. Just stop it."

"Me-"

"No buts! Leave it alone!"

"Meeewww..."

Marik eyed him with a confused look on his face. "What are you doing? Are you like...communicating with him? You can understand him?"

Bakura looked up. "Hm? Oh what? Yes, I can. Of course I can. Why not? You're able to talk to your bird. Why can't I be able to talk to myyyyyy...host's cat?"

Marik didn't notice Bakura correcting himself. He shrugged. "True."

Suddenly, Kuriby jumped out of Bakura's arms and started running away. Bakura stood up abruptly. "Come back here you bloody little...!" He started chasing after the white kitten. But before he could even take two steps, he felt something sliding across the back of his neck and he heard the sound of metal hitting concrete. He turned around and saw the Millenium Ring on the ground behind him. Then he looked down and saw that the clasp was now in front instead of behind his neck and it was opened.

This all happened in the span of three seconds, and Bakura was still in motion. Kuriby had stopped a few feet away from him.

A moment later, Bakura's knees grew weak, his eyes went blank, and he fell forward on the ground.

Marik saw it and had been startled for a few seconds. But when he saw Bakura fall, he finally reacted. "Oh em gee Bakura are you okay?!"

He ran over to Bakura and knelt down next to him. He saw that Bakura's head had turned, so his head had been cushioned by his hair. He was facing away from him. "What just happened?!" he asked frantically.

Bakura wasn't moving.

Marik turned to the Millenium Ring. When he looked at Bakura again, he saw Kuriby on the other side of Bakura's head. The kitten sat there for a moment, then licked Bakura on the nose just as the Brit began to stir.

Marik noticed and asked again, "Are you okay?! What just happened?!"

He quickly retrieved the Millenium Ring.

A moment later, the Brit on the ground started moving more. He braced his arms on either side of himself and pushed himself upward.

"Ow...what just happened..." he whispered.

He turned his head to either side, turning to Marik after looking the other way.

Their eyes met.

"Oh no..." Marik mumbled. "Ryou."

* * *

**So OMG RYOU IS OUT AGAIN?! Kuriby! What did you do this time! XD**

**Kuriby has become such and important plot component, I'm not going to have him as just a random pet Ryou has in this story anymore! As of right now, Kuriby is officially one of my OCs.**

**See you next chapter~!**

**BYEEEEEEEEEEE~!**


	19. 17: Expaining Melvin

**And so the craziness continues!**

**A quick recap: After leaving the vet's place, Yami Bakura asks Marik about Bakura's interrogation. He has a little rant about how complicated things have become. Kuriby was playing with the Millenium Ring. He starts running away, so Yami Bakura runs to catch him. But before he can, the Millenium Ring falls off the chain it hangs from and Bakura takes over again.**

**So let's see what happens! What did Kuriby do this time! Will Bakura become an annoying insert-hacker person again! Omg wtf?!**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

"Marik?" Ryou murmured confusedly. "What just happened..." Ryou turned around and sat up, then looked around. The first thing he noticed was the lack of weight around his neck. He looked down and saw that the chain around his neck was opened and the clasp was in front. One side hung lower than the other side.

As he was looking down, and before he could ask what happened to the Millenium Ring, the second thing he noticed was Kuriby. The kitten jumped on his lap and smiled and meowed adorably and triumphantly at him.

He had a hunch... "Kuriby... Did _you_ do this?"

Kuriby nodded.

Ryou's jaw dropped. "I don't know whether to scold you or reward you..." He turned to look at Marik. That was when he saw the third thing he noticed after waking up: the Millenium Ring in Marik's hands.

Startled, he quickly scrambled a few feet away from Marik. "That thing! My yami..." He stared at the ground and closed his eyes, and shuddered slightly. Marik didn't notice.

"Oh gosh..." Marik muttered. "Ryou, calm down. You're okay."

"Hmph. I wish I could believe you. For all I know, he could be about to..." His eyes widened with realization. "Wait a moment... He..._can't_! He'll try to, but he can't because I'm not wearing the Ring..."

He picked up Kuriby and petted him gently. "Good boy, Kuri! Good job! You need to do that more often!"

Kuriby mewed out a 'thank you'.

Ryou put Kuriby on his head. As he moved his hands away from Kuriby, he felt his hand brush against the kitty cat ears. He touched one of the ears and gave Marik a look. "Why am I still wearing these? I though he would have taken them off by now."

"I told him to leave them alone."

"And he listened?!"

"He did. Kura knows when to obey me because he knows when I'll get pissed off. He doesn't like dealing me when I get pissed off over certain things. But anyway... You want me to recap what's been going on?"

"Oh! Yes of course! Did you take-"

"We did," Marik interrupted, anticipating his question. "Kuriby is super healthy and perfectly fine."

"Smashing!" Ryou fixed the chain and re-clasped it. Then he moved back over to the bench. Looking at Marik another time, he was reminded of what had happened before they had started walking to the vet.

He looked up at Marik, suddenly feeling awkward in his presence. "Uh... Marik?"

"Yeah?" Marik moved over to the bench and sat down next to him, keeping the Ring as far away from him as possible so as to not set him off. "What is it?"

"Erm... A-about you and my yami..."

"Oh no. I see where this is going! Don't start this again!"

"Shush! Let me ask and then answer! I want to know if...Erm..." He blushed. "Are you two like...dating now? Just wondering."

Marik sighed. "Ugh. You're killing me here... I suppose so. I asked him the same thing and he said not to push my luck. But I'm pretty sure we are. I might have been the one to deny my love for him but I'm certainly not going to be the one to deny our relationship. And I swear, Limey Man..."

Marik's voice grew cold and dangerous. He suddenly stood up. He stood directly in front of Ryou, placed a hand on either side of him, and leaned in _really_ close, their faces no more than an inch apart. He looked deep into Ryou's eyes, keeping the Brit frozen in place with his gaze alone. "If you try to come between us or make any sort of move or suggestion to try to break us up, I swear that I will let you meet Melvin and if deathshipping or your death happens I won't care. Got that?"

Ryou's eyes widened and his face grew terrified. He nodded slowly, taking Marik's threat _very_ seriously. "Y-y-yes, Marik. I got that."

Marik stood up and glared at him one last time. "Good. Just putting that out there..." He sat back down.

"Erm...by the way, you never told me. Who the bloody hell is Melvin?"

"Hm? Oh. Melvin. Yeah. You_ really_ don't wanna meet him. He's terrible. He's even more evil than me, he loves stabbing people, he's good with a chainsaw, he has absolutely no conscience, punctuality is his Achilles Heel, his weapon of choice is the Millenium Rod, he is ruthless in card games and every single time he duels is a Shadow Game, he likes to consume people's souls, he says 'Binky Boy' a lot, he's insane, has hair that is spiky all over the frigging place, he-"

"Okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop please I don't want to hear anymore I get it he's terrible stop telling me about him please I don't want to hear anymore about him!" Ryou had covered his ears with his hands and was shaking his head wildly and even crying a bit. Kuriby had already jumped off his head and was sitting in his lap, trembling. Both Ryou and Kuriby looked absolutely terrified at the very _thought_ of Melvin.

Marik stopped talking. He could very clearly see the effect that knowing about Melvin was having on Ryou. But he had one more thing to mention... "And by the way, he's my yami."

Ryou stopped freaking out for a moment and looked at Marik, his eyes wide. "Are you bloody kidding me!"

"I'm not. But unlike Bakura and the Pharaoh, he isn't in my Millenium Item. He's in my mind. He's a darker personality, a darker half of my soul, rather than a spirit living in my body. He only usually comes out when I get really angry or upset or angsty."

Ryou's eyes widened even more. "I-" He picked up Kuriby and abruptly stood up. He walked a few feet away from Marik, then stopped. He lowered his head.

Marik watched him silently for a few moments. "Ryou?" he called out quietly. "Are you...okay?"

"No. Don't even ask why. I'll just reply, 'why do you think?'"

"I-"

"So? Why do you _think_ I'm not alright?!"

Marik sighed. He stood up and followed him a few steps. "Because you're around too much evil? Because your safety and health have been constantly compromised lately? Because you don't want these complications?"

"Spot-on, Marik. You've got it exactly right. I'm tired of this."

"Well what do you want me to do about it?!"

"I don't bloody know!" Ryou ran over to the bench and laid down on it. He let Kuriby go and the kitten started licking his face and purring and rubbing against him in an attempt to cheer him up. Ryou smiled and started petting Kuriby. He was calmer, but still upset and scared. Everything was going wrong. Things were happening to him that didn't usually happen. His yami was still being as abusive as ever, so there was no change there. But between Marik and Melvin and thiefshipping and the tattoos and between the vet visit for Kuriby that he should have been there for but wasn't...

"My life is a mess," he said at last quietly. "I don't even know what I should do anymore..."

"Ryou."

"What the bugger do you want you evil tosser?"

"Do you need a hug?"

Ryou sat up. In doing so, he made Kuriby fall off his chest. "Sorry," he murmured to Kuriby. "Wh-what?" he asked Marik. "You...yes. I do believe that I need a reassuring hug right now."

_'Oh I assure you, I'll be _very_ reassuring...hehehe...'_

Marik smiled. "Kay." He sat next to Ryou on the bench and let the Brit pull him into a tight and squeezing hug. Ryou gradually closed his eyes.

The only thing that kept Marik from minding was pretending that he was hugging Bakura and not Ryou.

_"Yeah...go ahead and let yourself get distracted..."_

Marik's eyes suddenly widened. "N-"

Ryou felt something change about Marik. But he didn't care. He was still upset.

Ryou sniffed. "Thanks a lot, Marik. I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome, Binky Boy."

* * *

**What just happened? Why did I just end the chapter.**

**All shall be revealed next chapter!**

**Deathshipping fans...calm your asses. I said in A Scar Stamp and A Sexy Shipping that it would be the only time I deathship in a fanfic, so don't hold your breaths.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEEEEE~!**


	20. 18: Death Shipping or Your Death

**OMG DEATHSHIPPING AND STUFF!**

**Hello again. Yup. MELVIN! Omr what's gonna happen now?!1?1!?1**

**A quick recap: While Yami Bakura is angsting over things, Kuriby plays with the chain the Millenium Ring hangs from, then jumps out of Yami Bakura's arms. Yami Bakura starts to run after him, but the Millenium Ring falls off the chain and Bakura takes over again. Marik threatens Bakura not to come between him and Yami Bakura, and tells him about Melvin. Bakura gets angsty about how much has gone wrong recently, and asks Marik for a hug. But when Marik gives him the hug, Melvin comes out.**

**Omg deathshipping?! Maybe. Maybe not. We'll see!**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Ryou's eyes shot open. He remembered just moments ago when Marik had been describing...

Ryou ended the hug. But whoever it was wouldn't let go.

"Marik..." Ryou said in a small and scared voice. "...you can let go now..."

Ryou turned his head so that he could look at Marik's hair and what he saw made him gasp.

Marik's hair was all spiked up all over the place. Just like...

Melvin.

His heart started to race and he started trembling. "Let go let go let go let go let go of me please!"

"How about...no?" replied a dark and evil and somewhat echoey voice.

He let Ryou free of the hug, but held onto his upper arm. Ryou was only able to back up as far as Melvin's arm reached. He took in Melvin's appearance. He had this weird glowing eye thing on his forehead and his face looked somewhat veiny. And of course, his hair was all spiky and stood up in all directions, making him look very much like he had some kind of weird starfish artichoke thing on his head...

And those eyes... Omg Melvin's eyes looked so evil...

"Hey there," Melvin said, raising an eyebrow. "Aren't you an adorable, defenseless little thing. Didn't know that Bakura's host was so cute. What's your name?"

Ryou gulped. "Uh...B-Bakura R-Ryou... You're Melvin, aren't you?"

"I am. Glad to hear that Marik has told you so much about me..."

"Can you let me go now please AAAHHH!" Melvin had squeezed Ryou's arm a bit tighter. "S-s-stop that! P-p-please..."

"Mmm... I don't think I want to do that just yet..."

"How did you even get out?!" Ryou asked. "Marik told me you only came out when he got angry or upset or angsty, and he wasn't any of those things just a few moments ago! How did you-"

"Oh he didn't need to be upset about anything," Melvin replied, casually examining his fingernails as if he wasn't talking to someone who was terrified by his very presence. "I was fighting with him a few chapters ago, while you were in your soul hallway with Bakura, over who would get control in a few chapters. Needless to day, I won. And needless to say, my hikari wasn't all too happy about it. Heheheheh."

"That's nice. Just...let me go."

"Hm. I don't think so. You...I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with you..."

"No! How did this happen!" Ryou closed his eyes and started struggling to break free of Melvin's tight grasp. Needless to say, it wasn't working very well. "Someone..." His eyes shot open and he looked around. To his surprise, the street and the park were both completely empty. It was really odd because there had been people around them just a few minutes ago...he was sure of it...

"Oh no." He was alone. Alone with Melvin. Alone with one of the villains, again. Alone with another yami. Alone with pure evil and darkness. Alone with Melvin.

He realized what Marik had meant by 'deathshipping or your death'. The harsh reality of the situation hit him: either he was about to be seriously violated or he was about to be brutally murdered. Needless to say, neither option was appealing.

Despite the obvious lack of people around, Ryou cried out, "Someone help me please!"

Melvin laughed, then pulled him close, turned him around, and wrapped an arm around his neck. Ryou instinctively grabbed at the arm around his neck, trying to pry it off. "Go ahead, scream for help. No one is around to hear you. But now that I think about it..." With his free hand, Melvin covered Ryou's mouth. "I'd rather keep you quiet. Don't make another sound."

He uncovered Ryou's mouth a moment later, knowing that the hikari would be too terrified to make any noise.

"Good... Heheheh."

Ryou gulped.

He remembered something that Marik had said.

'The Millenium Rod was his weapon of choice.' What did that even mean? How was the Rod a weapon? Was Mevlin going to bash his skull in with it? Or would he use Shadow Magic to make his head explode? Or what?!

Then he remembered... Millenium Items... The Ring! Where was it?! He looked around, as much as he could with Melvin's arm around his neck. Then, he saw a glint of gold in Melvin's hand near his shoulder.

If he could get his hands on it, the other Bakura might be able to take over, and surely _he_ knew how to deal with Melvin, right?

He reached for the Ring quickly before Melvin noticed and could stop him. But Melvin _did_ notice. He quickly switched the Ring from one hand to the other and held it out of Ryou's reach. "What? You want this thing?" Melvin asked mockingly. "What for? Bakura can't help you now. And even if he could, _would_ he? Would your yami really help you if you asked him to?"

"H-he might..." was all Ryou said.

"Ha! I highly doubt that. Face it, he doesn't really care about you. But it doesn't even matter. You're not getting the Ring."

Ryou heard the sound of metal falling on the ground. Melvin had most likely thrown the Millenium Ring on the ground a few feet away.

"N-" he was about to say something along the lines of 'no. Give it back', but he remembered that Melvin wanted him quiet.

Now he was _really_ terrified. "I... ya...mi... some...one... kur...ih...bee.. help... me..." That was all he was able to get out before he fainted.

* * *

**OMG MELVIN WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY RYOU KUUUUNNNN?!**

**I guess you people will have to wait till next time to fun out what happens to Ryou, won't you?**

**Actually... NO YOU WON'T!**

**Because the chapter isn't over yet!**

**Ha! I got you, didn't I?**

**(Probably not...)**

* * *

Ryou went limp in his arms.

Melvin smiled evilly. He let go of the British teen and stood up. Ryou went totally limp and fell back onto the bench. Both arms hung off of ether side of the bench seat. He appeared to be breathing hard, which was good. And Melvin checked his pulse, which was going extremely fast. Needless to say, Ryou was still alive, but unconscious, and had been so terrified that he fainted.

"Heheheh... That was much easier than I expected. Now it's time to give this kid a hug..."

He reached for the Millenium Rod and took it out, then he unsheathed its hidden blade. He tucked the bottom part of it in one of his pockets. Then he sat down on the bench again next to Ryou's head.

But he didn't raise his arm to attack.

He was having second thoughts.

"Hmmm... This face is somehow too adorable to murder." _Especially when he's sleeping..._

He reached a hand to touch Ryou's face.

But all of a sudden, in the exact same instant, the Brit grabbed Melvin's wrist, his hair fluffed up, and his eyes opened.

Except, it wasn't Ryou's eyes that were open...

* * *

**Okay NOW the chapter is over! Omg crazy stuff be happenin!  
****But I'm not telling u what it iiiissss~!**

**Tee hee hee!  
****Seems pretty obvious, though. **

**Now you know how to pronounce "Kuriby".**

**Next chapter is more of a "meanwhile" flashback chapter than a continuation of this chapter.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEEEEE~!**


	21. 16,5-18,5: A Bunch Of Meanwhiles

**I have returned!  
I swear, time between updates always feels like forever, even though it's always only a week...  
I realized that I had submitted the chapter with SEVERAL editing errors. I have a chem project thingy due tonight, so I don't have tome to fix it ALL, but I fixed it a bit. You're welcome.**

**A quick recap: While Yami Bakura is distracted with an angsty rant, Kuriby somehow manages to unclasp the chain that the Millenium Ring hangs from, and Bakura is let out. After thanking Kuriby, Bakura is threatened by Marik to not interfere with thiefshipping, and also learns about Melvin. Coincidentally, when Bakura asks for a hug from Marik moments later, Melvin comes out and scares Bakura so much that he faints. Just as Melvin is having second thoughts about 'hugging' him, Bakura wakes up and grabs his arm. Or does he?**

**This chapter gets a bit confusing. It's not a continuation of the previous chapter; it's a bunch of Meanwhiles. I'm not going to say much more than that. Hope you don't get too confused!**

**In this and next chapter, Ryou will be referred to as "Bakura" again and Bakura will be referred to as "Yami Bakura". After next chapter, Ryou will be called "Ryou" again and Bakura will be called "Bakura" again.**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

"Ugh... This is getting too complicated..." the white-and-fluffy-haired evil person said. "I wish this whole thing had never happened. I wish that Ryou hadn't been let out unexpectedly, I wish he had never found Kuriby, I wish Ishizu hadn't called you, I wish that he hadn't nailed the Ring to the wall, and please don't be offended by this but I wish that you hadn't come back with me to Japan."

Kuriby's eyes widened. He knew that this other 'Bakura' didn't like him. And he somehow knew that the other Bakura was in the weird shiny ring. He had sensed it. But when it was on the wall, the real Bakura had been out. So maybe...

He had said that he was in Bakura's body. So... He just needed to get that ring away!

He remembered helping Bakura pick out the chain around his neck a few days ago. It had an easy-to-open clasp.

Kuriby eyed the shiny silver chain...

The started slowly and carefully turning the chain around, hoping that the evil Bakura wouldn't notice.

The evil Bakura noticed, but by that time Kuriby was done moving the chain. He reached under his hair and briefly scratched the back of his neck.

Then he noticed Kuriby playing with the Millenium Ring. He gently slapped the kitten's paw away from it. "Stop that."

"_Stop what?_"

"You know what. Just stop it."

"_But-_"

"No buts! Leave it alone!"

"_uuugghhhh._"

He knew that it would be slightly difficult to open it because he had paws and not fingers like Bakura did. But he tried his best and used his teeth and claws to open it.

It worked! All he had to do was make the evil Bakura move and the ring would slide off the chain.

He did the only thing he could think of that would accomplish this: he jumped out of his arms and started running away.

* * *

_**~Later~**_

* * *

Bakura sat up. In doing so, he made Kuriby fall off his chest. "Sorry," he murmured to Kuriby. Kuriby mewed his forgiveness, but Bakura was too distracted to notice.

After that, Kuriby decided to relax under the bench.

* * *

_**~Later~**_

* * *

"Marik..." Kuriby heard Bakura say in a small and scared voice. "...you can let go now..."

Kuriby curiously looked up between the planks of the bench to see what was going on. What he saw shocked him.

The tanned human's hair was all spiked up all over the place. Just like...

Melvin.

Bakura started panicking. "Let go let go let go let go let go of me please!"

Kuriby tried to stay as still as possible so "Melvin" would not notice him.

He started panicking and trembling. What would happen to Bakura?! Would Melvin hurt him or what? What's deathshipping and why would it happen? Could he do something to help out? But what?

He zoned back in moments later.

"What? You want this thing? What for? Bakura can't help you now. And even if he could, _would_ he? Would your yami really help you if you asked him to?"

"H-he might..."

"Ha! I highly doubt that. Face it, he doesn't really care about you. But it doesn't even matter. You're not getting the Ring."

Kuriby heard the sound of metal falling on the ground. He turned towards the sound and saw the evil golden ring on the ground a few feet away from the bench. He looked up and saw Melvin's hand outstretched towards it. He had thrown it away... Why?

Then he realized... The presence in the ring. It was still in there.

Maybe, just maybe, the evil Bakura was stronger than the real Bakura. And maybe the evil Bakura could fight off Melvin! But Bakura had to be wearing the ring for the evil Bakura to take over.

So he had to put the ring in Bakura's hand.

He noticed that Bakura had fainted. His hands hung from either side of the bench seat; one in front, one in back.

Still trembling, Kuriby bravely and stealthily crept towards the golden ring. He watched Melvin as he crept, making sure he wasn't detected. Finally, he picked it up in his mouth by the top hole of the ring. He raced back over to the bench quietly and pressed the ring into Bakura's hand.

The hand closed around the triangle in the center.

Kuriby waited for his owner's appearance to change. But nothing happened.

He wanted to help in his ultimate way, but he wanted to save that for when all hope was lost for the Bakuras to win.

He didn't have to wait long for something to happen; a minute or two later, Kuriby sensed a change in Bakura's presence and he saw Bakura's free hand shoot up.

* * *

_**~Meanwhile~**_

* * *

"Never thought I'd need to be back here..."

"Marik?! How did you get in here?!"

Marik turned around and faced Yami Bakura.

They were both somewhere in Bakura/YamiBakura's mind, in that weird dreamlike place from Season 2 where Yami Bakura told Marik to go get some more spray-on tan. It wasn't either Bakura's soul room, though

"Oh my gosh thank the Winged Dragon of Ra that you're here, Bakura!"

Yami Bakura folded his arms and leaned to one side. "Marik, what are you doing in the Millenium Ring? What happened out there? Did Kuriby do something?! I swear I am going to kill that kitten..."

"Calm down, Fluffy. Pay attention. Apparently, Kuriby undid the clasp and Ryou was let out. I warned him to not come between us by threatening him with Melvin. Then he asked me who Melvin is and then he got all terrified and angsty like you were just before Ryou was released. Then I offered him a hug."

"You did WHAT?!"

"He looked like he needed it! Apparently, Melvin took that to be a signal that it was his turn and he took over! Now, Ryou is stuck alone with Melvin!"

Yami Bakura's face went from agitated to bored. "Okay. So what do you mean, 'his turn'? What do you two take turns or something?"

Marik sank to his knees and lowered his head. He wrapped his arms around himself. "No! We were fighting a few chapters ago over who would get to take over in a few chapters! I'm sorry Bakura, but he won! I'm sorry I didn't mean for this to happen."

Yami Bakura walked over to him. "Don't be sorry. I'm not upset. It's not your fault."

Marik looked up. "But he's with Ryou, now! Aren't you the slightest bit worried?"

The spirit shrugged. "No. Not really. Ryou wouldn't give Melvin a reason to hurt him because he wouldn't irritate Melvin in any way. And I really don't care if deathshipping happens. I'd consider it more payback for all that has been messed up because of him."

Marik's jaw dropped. "WHAT?! Are you kidding me?! Bakura, Melvin is insane and you know it! He _would_ kill Ryou just for the hell of it, not because Ryou irritated him or something! Don't you understand that?! Melvin is frigging insane. And do you REALLY n"

Yami Bakura's eyes widened. He honestly didn't care about what happened to Bakura. It but if Melvin was going to stab his host...he certainly cared. He didn't want any more physical harm to come to his host because then _he_ would have to deal with it later. "Fine I'll help him," he said at last.

"Yeah about that..." Marik stood up. "Ryou didn't take back the Ring. Didn't want to."

"Don't you think I know that? Of he had, I would have taken over again by now!"

"Of course, but I've been watching and Melvin isn't letting Ryou get his hands on the Ring."

Yami Bakura's eyes widened even more. "No..." he whispered. "Ryou needs to get his hands on the Ring... I know, I'll simply teleport the Ring to him. Simple. It worked before, and the Ring isn't nailed to a wall as far as I know, so it should work now. Is Melvin still holding the Ring? If he is, I can't teleport it to him. It won't teleport if something or someone is holding it."

"Erm..." Marik zoned out for a moment, the zoned back in. "He was, but then he tossed it aside so Ryou wouldn't get it."

"Perfect!" He tried to make the Ring teleport to Bakura. But he sensed that it didn't work. "What the...someone is holding it again!"

"Not Melvin! I know that much."

"Hm..." He tried again. But again, it didn't work. "What is going on here?!"

"I have no idea. Maybe-"

Marik cut himself off when he noticed the scenery changing. Instead of empty black darkness, he found himself standing in Yami Bakura's soul room. Before he could say anything, he disappeared from the room and was transported to where he rest of his soul was: trapped in his soul room by Melvin.

Yami Bakura eyed the spot where Marik was just standing. "Marik! Where did you go?! And why am I...in my soul room...!"

He gasped. He turned to the door. It was closed but...

He grinned. "Never thought this would happen. Kuriby... That useless furball actually did something useful for once!"

He opened the door and raced out of the hallway.

* * *

Kuriby smiled adorably and he cheered up when he saw Bakura's arm move and his fingers grip the Ring tighter.

Marik found himself trapped in his soul room, watching the events going on through his eyes, but without being able to take over. It pissed him off because Melvin had the choice to let him see or not, and Melvin was letting him watch as torment.

But his eyes lit up when he saw Bakura open his eyes...

* * *

Bakura was suddenly pulled out of the darkness and into a lit room. He was on his back. He sat up and looked around. He was in his soul room.

But he suddenly remembered why he had fainted in the first place, and promptly fainted again.

* * *

Yami Bakura felt himself have a physical form. He felt a cool, yet warm, metal in his left hand. He knew what it was, so he grasped it tighter. Then, at the same instant, some instinct feeling in him compelled his arm to move and his eyes to open.

* * *

Everyone knew what had just happened: Yami Bakura had taken over again.

* * *

**Hope you liked that little look into how certain stuff happened.  
I feel like that didn't flow very well. But then again, that's what I said in some of the beginning chapters of this story, and people still liked that. Hopefully I'm not pushing my limits of not-making-sense-ness... (~_~) ugh...**

**The real continuation of what's going to happen next will happen next chapter!**

**So there MIGHT have been a bit of deathshipping last chapter. There might not have been. Who knows? It's up to interpretation. Either Ryou is so cute that no one dares hurt him or Melvin thinks Ryou is too adorable to want to hurt him. You decide! **

**I know that Kuriby seems to act and think more humanly than he should. That's not an accident. That's how he is. That's why I made him an OC instead of just a character in this story! Kuriby will show up in another fanfic of mine that I may or may not decide to start. **

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEEEEE~!**


	22. 19: Cats Versus Psycho

**Ooooohh! What happens now?!**

**A quick recap: Bakura has a little rant about how things have gotten too complicated and crazy. Marik gives him a hug to console him, but Melvin accidentally comes out. He scares Bakura into fainting by throwing the Millenium Ring aside, thus ensuring that he can't call upon Yami Bakura for help. However, Kuriby secretly brings the Ring back to Bakura, and Yami Bakura takes over to face Melvin.**

**So yup! Flashback over! Crazy stuff happens in this chapter! Remember, Ryou is Bakura and Bakura is Yami Bakura. This changes next chapter.**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

"Well look who it is. We finally meet again, Florence," Melvin said with a smirk.

Yami Bakura's eyes finally zoned in. He focused on Melvin. His eyes widened, he sat up, and wrenched his arm away from Melvin. The Millenium Ring in hand, he stood up and took two steps away from the bench. "Give control back to Marik _now_," he demanded.

"Yeah... It'll take more than just asking to make me give up control so easily. I was just about to start having fun with your host."

"I'll be damned if I'm going to let that happen!" _Good thing he doesn't know that I _would_ have let that happen..._

"Don't be presumptuous, Florence," Melvin said with the shake of his finger. "You don't know what _kind_ of fun I meant. And there are a _lot_ of different kinds of fun."

"I don't care. Either give control back to Marik or leave. I won't hesitate to pull a ToLaD on you to get you out of my sight or out of this story."

Melvin's head tilted in confusion. "What the f*** is a ToLaD?"

Yami Bakura smirked at his ignorance. "_Someone_ doesn't know enough Aquailita allusions. I'll kill your soul and make you leave Marik for good."

Melvin's devilish smirk returned. "Yeah, sure. Go ahead. I'd like to see you try."

Yami Bakura's smirk faded and his face grew serious.

"You'll regret those words."

"Make me," Melvin said, his face and tone just as serious.

Yami Bakura opened the clasp around his neck and left it hanging there, in case he needed to put the Millenium Ring around his neck at some point. Using a bit of Shadow Magic, he made it so the chain would stay there and not slip off when he was fighting.

He held the Ring in his left hand.

"With pleasure," the spirit replied.

Melvin ran at him.

Yami Bakura braced himself.

Their brawl began! Omg and stuffz!

They tried to punch and slap each other. Neither of them succeeded because the other dark kept blocking and parrying.

At one point, they tried to use their Millenium Items to their advantage, simultaneously using the Items while they fist-fought. It didn't work because they _both_ had Items and neither one advantaged more over the other.

This became too much trouble to multitask, so they simply used their Items as the weapons they could be; Yami Bakura using the Ring as a spiked shield and Melvin using the Rod as a club and the blade it obviously was.

When they grew tired of that, they brought out their lightsabers. Bakura had his "stored" in the Millenium Ring. He shot the Ring's laser at his right hand and the lightsaber materialized. Melvin twisted the Rod and the blade disappeared and was replaced by the lightsaber laser. They fought like they were back in Battle City. Again, they were evenly matched, and no one got a successful hit in.

They grew tired of this as well and decided to switch back to fists.

Melvin simply retracted the lightsaber into the Rod again and expertly put the Rod back on the belt loop he (and Marik) always had it hooked in. He (and Marik) had done this so many times that it had become automatic, and he could do it in a split second.

Yami Bakura, however, was not used to taking out and putting away his lightsaber because he didn't use it often. He had still been holding the Millenium Ring in his left hand while holding the lightsaber in both hands. So he was a little slow in putting the lightsaber back. He shot the Ring's laser at his right hand and the lightsaber disappeared again. Then he reached for the chain around his neck to hang the Ring from it so he could have his hands 100% free. Although Bakura had been smart in picking a clasp that would be very easy to manually open, it still took him a second to open it. That second proved to be invaluable to Melvin.

He was standing in front of a tree, his side to the tree. Melvin was on his other side.

Melvin knocked Yami Bakura back with his foot while the spirit was distracted with the clasp for that one second. Yami Bakura hit the tree hard, the side of his head hit the tree trunk, and he passed out.

Yup. That totally just happened.

Good job, Florence.

* * *

After his head hit, the rest of his body turned and he slumped to the ground, leaning against the tree.

Melvin's evil grin widened and got super eviller.

"Well that was surprisingly easy," he said. He looked around. He wondered if it was fanfiction convenience, a coincidence, or just that the fight drove everyone away, that the entire area around them was completely void of pedestrians. Or, as Melvin thought of it, void of witnesses.

He didn't really care.

Kuriby had been watching the entire fight from underneath the bench, out of sight or notice, terrified. He wondered if his owner was okay, and hoped that the Bakura in control would win because it would mean that his Bakura would be saved.

He watched from under the bench as Melvin slowly approached Yami Bakura. He didn't like the evil Bakura. But he had to do something for him because he inhabited his owner's body!

He raced out from under the bench.

Melvin was a few steps away from Yami Bakura's unconscious body.

Kuriby suddenly jumped in front of Bakura. He growled and tried to- and succeeded in- look menacing and threatening, and still managed to look adorable while doing it. His fur stood up on end and his back arched. He hissed.

For some reason, Melvin figured it out... "So _you're_ the one who brought the Ring to Ryou. Very clever, Bakura Jr." Kuriby hissed at the name. "Let's see if you're clever enough to escape me..." Melvin bent down and reached for Kuriby with both hands.

Kuriby didn't back up.

Melvin was only two steps away.

Big mistake.

Kuriby pounced.

* * *

**To a guest reviewer "Squary"... Thanks so much for the review! I'm glad you enjoy this story! I'm always happy to let people share my artwork and literature. Of COURSE you can feature this on your blogwhateverthingy. Can I have the link to it, though?  
However, I want to talk with you more about this. Do you have an account here? If not, do you have a YouTube account or deviantART account we can chat at? If not, I have no other way of talking to you about your review or the blog.  
Thanks again! (^7^)**

**To be honest, I didn't think of an ending, or even a middle!, when I started this story. *sniffsniff* but look at how it's grown! *sniffsniff***

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEEEEE~!**


	23. 20: The Cat Won, But Which One Won?

**GO KURIBY! Whether he succeeds or not will be revealed in this chapter. WHY he does or doesn't might not be revealed in this story, but in another. Not sure yet. (not sure of ANYTHING for the future chapters of this story, really).**

**A quick recap: Marik gives Bakura a hug and Melvin comes out accidentally. Melvin tosses the Millenium Ring away so that Yami Bakura can't help Bakura, so Bakura faints from fear. Kuriby gets the Millenium Ring back to Bakura, and Yami Bakura is able to take over and fend Melvin away from Bakura. However, he gets knocked out at the last minute. Then, Kuriby steps in to help the spirit inhabiting the body of his owner defend himself from Melvin.**

**Ryou is referred to as "Ryou" again in this chapter and we go back to calling Bakura "Bakura". This chapter goes back to the typical chapter lengths from before, short and one-scene-ed. I almost had more for this, but decided to save that part for next week.**

**This chapter gets really sweet and adorable at the end.**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Ryou woke up. He looked around. His eyes widened when he realized that he was no longer in his soul room, but in control of his body! And he was also completely unharmed! He was sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree a few feet away from the bench he had been sitting on. His head hurt, like it had bumped against something. The tree, maybe?

He remembered that he had fainted from fear after Melvin tossed the Millenium Ring away. But then...what happened?

He looked down.

He was wearing the Millenium Ring. He smiled wide. However he got the Ring back, he was certain that his yami had taken over and fought off Melvin for him.

Or had he?

Ryou looked up and saw what looked to him like Melvin passed out on the ground and Kuriby sitting on his chest, looking triumphant for some reason.

Had Kuriby done this, or had the evil Bakura done it?

Ryou stood up and walked over to Kuriby. When he did, he realized that it was Marik, not Melvin, on the ground. From where he had been sitting, he hadn't been able to see the hair.

Kuriby looked up at him. When Bakura was only a step away, Kuriby mewed adorably. Then...

"Mreewrl."  
_"You're welcome."_

"What?" Ryou said. "For wh-" He smiled again. "Kuriby... Did you return the Ring to me? And help fight off Melvin?"

Kuriby nodded twice. Once for each question. He hopped off of Marik's chest, then walked over to Marik's head and nudged it. Marik didn't move. Kuriby licked Marik's face.

"Bakura stop licking my face wait until we get back to the room, jeez!" Marik suddenly blurted out, shooting up into a sitting position. Kuriby backed away so he wouldn't be accidentally hit.

Marik blinked in confusion. Then he realized where he was and what had just happened. He looked up at Ryou, who was eyeing him strangely. "Oh Ryou hey there! Guess what?!"

Ryou stayed silent for a moment before asking, "Why the bugger did you just say that?"

"Say what?"

"'Stop licking my face wait until we get back to the room'," he quoted.

"Shut the frig up. I will not repeat myself." Then he looked like he suddenly remembered something. His eyes lit up and he blurted out, "Guess what!"

"What?" Ryou asked, his face going neutral.

"Bakura totally saved your life!"

"What? No... Did he?"

Marik smiled and nodded. "Yup. I saw. Just before Melvin blocked me out again, I saw Bakura open his eyes and grab Melvin's arm before he touched your face."

"What..." Ryou's face grew confused. "But...I'm pretty sure that he didn't save me...I woke up on the ground against that tree over there." He pointed to the tree he had been leaning against a minute or two ago. "And Kuriby was on top of you..."

"I'm pretty sure that Bakura did it," Marik insisted. "I was talking to him, and he said he was going to try and get the Ring to you so he could help you. Everything got all confusing, but I'm pretty sure he did."

"I don't believe that."

"What?" Marik said a bit angrily. "You trust that cat, who you've only had for three days, more than your yami, who you've known for however many years? What the frigging [EFF!]?!"

"I never liked Bakura to begin with! And I'm pretty sure that Kuriby _did_ help me out! Why would I have woken up against that tree if he had actually been the one to save me! He would have said something to me!"

"Well I don't know how the fight ended, but I'm pretty sure that Bakura _did_ try to fight off Melvin for you! No frigging way Kuriby did that on his own."

"Maybe Tristan is right! Maybe Kuriby _is_ an evil-repelling cat!"

"That's total bullcrap!"

"Bakura may have started the fight, but not for me!" Ryou shot back angrily and sadly. "I know it! He probably only did it so he could wear Melvin out or something so he could help _you_ out and help you regain control of your body! I don't believe for an instant that he did it for me!"

"Well I say that he did!"

"How do you know?!"

"How do _you_ know?!"

"I don't!"

"Well neither do I!"

The two hikaris continued to argue, both of them even coming close to tears a few times.

* * *

_Meanwhile, they were being watched..._

Kuriby sat off to the side of them, a few feet away. He watched his owner argue with the tanned human whose body had been taken over by the "Melvin" person. He frowned (and looked adorable while doing it), not liking how the arguing seemed to be making Bakura feel.

_Meanwhile, someone else was also watching the argument._

He sat down on the ground next to Kuriby. He began watching his hikari and his boy- erm... _Marik_- argue. He was amused by the actual arguing but and annoyed by it.

Kuriby noticed and looked up. It was the evil Bakura. However, he was in spirit form instead of touchable. Surprisingly, Kuriby didn't hiss at the spirit form of the other soul in his owner's body and golden ring. He mewed to get the spirit's attention. When the spirit looked down at him, Kuriby actually smiled. He blinked slowly.

Bakura, knowing how to speak cat, knew what that meant and he blinked rapidly in surprise. Kuriby hadn't hissed or clawed at him. He remembered how Kuriby had tried to help fight off Melvin... So, after a moment, he repeated the gesture.*****

Kuriby jumped into the dark Bakura's arms and rubbed his head against the spirit's stomach.

Bakura smiled and pet Kuriby's head gently.

It was obvious that the fight between Bakura and Melvin, and its outcome as well as how it began, had changed things between the two felines. The resentment and dislike they'd had for each other about five chapters ago had diminished. It had far from vanished, but the two didn't hate each other anymore. Not quite as much.

Things would be different between Bakura and Kuriby (**AKA Bakitty and Bakura Jr.**) from that point on.

They looked at each other, slow-blinked again, then continued watching the hikaris argue.

* * *

***Apparently (and I could be wrong), a slow blink means "I love you" in cat (but it's a loose translation). Isn't that sweet? I learned this from the show "My Cat From Hell", which is about this guy who comes in and helps people with really crazy cats learn how to get their cat to behave and stop being evil and hellish. It's really interesting and stuff! Go look it up!**

**OMG SUPERCUTEKAWAIIDESUNE!**

**Glad this story is doing so well. Just like how it was when the story started, I have no idea of the plot for a few chapters from now and I have NO idea when or how this will end. I'll think of something.**

**Next chapter ALMOST wasn't planned out at all. Luckily, I split this one in half on a transition so that it wouldn't be so long and so there could be more chapters.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEEEEE~!**


	24. 21: Sleeping Cats and Parting At Last

**More cute in this chapter!**

**A quick recap: After trying to fight off Melvin from doing anything to Bakura, Yami Bakura gets knocked out. However, Kuriby steps in and helps him finish the job. When Bakura takes over again and wakes up, he sees Kuriby near Melvin and thinks he is responsible for Melvin's defeat. But Marik thinks that Yami Bakura did it. When Marik wakes up, he argues with Bakura over who stopped Melvin. The two that Marik and Bakura are arguing about—Kuriby and Yami Bakura—make amends with each other while they are watching the hikaris argue.**

**In this chapter, a lot is winding down. It might be the last update for a while (not a long while, less than a month, hopefully, but no promises), but don't worry! This story isn't over yet and I won't abandon it. For now, enjoy this chapter and it's feline-ness overload.**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

_~Several minutes later~_

Ryou randomly glanced to his right during his argument so he could check on Kuriby. But instead of finding Kuriby sitting on the side and watching them, he saw the kitten asleep on the ground. Or rather, lying on top of Bakura, who was asleep on the ground in his spirit form. Both of them looked tired and worn out. Most likely from their respective fights with Melvin, as well as the stress of that particular day.

He was so shocked that he stopped arguing in the middle of a word and turned to them, confusion written all over his face. Marik noticed this and turned to see what he was looking at. He also stopped talking in the middle of his word and just stared silently at the two of them.

"That is so bloody adorable," Ryou commented after a minute.

"How the frig is Kuriby on top of Bakura when Bakura is in spirit form?"

"Have no idea, but I don't care how." Ryou smiled wide. "Kuriby wouldn't be lying on top of him if he still disliked Bakura, and I'm pretty sure he didn't like Bakura at all."

"Tell me about it," Marik said, also smiling. "He chose me over Bakura several chapters ago."

"Really?"

"He did."

"So...what are we going to do about them? We can't just leave them sleeping there. And Kuriby might fall if Bakura retreats into his soul room unconsciously."

"True..."

They walked closer to the sleeping white-haired duo and sat on the ground in front of them.

"But I don't want to wake up my cat," Ryou said quietly. "He looks too adorable sleeping."

"And I don't want to wake up _my_ cat," Marik said in a whisper. "I don't think I've ever watched him sleep before. He looks so innocent and harmless."

"I beg to differ."

"That's just pain on his face. The pain of being evil, which actually isn't that painful."

"Well I can't argue with that, since I know his backstory."

"You have to tell me some of it, sometime. He rarely tells me anything about his life outside of his evil plan to defeat the Pharaoh. Not about you, not about his past, and certainly not about his backstory. It's why I didn't know a damn thing about you. He never told me. He just kept vaguely mentioning a 'host'."

"I know. You already told me."

"I know that. I wish he would open up more."

Ryou put a gentle hand on Marik's knee and looked at him. "Well since you two are a lot closer now, maybe he will."

"I doubt it," Marik said a bit sadly. "Did he open up to you about his past or did you-"

"Erm..." Ryou's face turned slightly guilty. He removed his hand from Marik's knee. "I might have snuck into his soul room once and 'accidentally' found out..."

"What did he do to you when he found out?"

Ryou shut his eyes tight, remembering. "Ugh. He... Well let's just say that in my spirit form, my sensitive little bottom is a _lot_ more sensitive than before..."

"What so he like beat your ass or something?"

Ryou blushed. "Uh...never mind. I shouldn't have told you."

"Well it's more than he tells me."

Ryou opened his eyes and looked at Marik incredulously. "It's more than either of us would have told you! Ever! Need I remind you of Vegas and a certain tattoo you both have?"

Marik shook his head. "No! You need not!" Marik frowned and suddenly whipped out the Millenium Rod. He pointed it at Ryou. "Don't mention that to me ever again."

Ryou shrank back a bit and bit his lip, nodding silently. His blush faded.

Marik smiled again and put the Rod away. "Good."

Ryou was a bit put off by Marik's random behavior change. He would have to later ask his yami if Marik had any disorders or conditions that he should know about (namely bi-polar or hyperactive ones). He relaxed and moved closer to Marik again.

They watched their two kitties for another minute. Neither of them stirred. The only movements made were Bakura's hand moving to rest on Kuriby's back and Kuriby shifting his head and sighing a little. Both of them made a tiny adorable mewing sound.

Marik suddenly pinched his nose.

Ryou noticed, and pretended he didn't.

They sat there in silence for another minute. Marik deemed it safe to remove his fingers and did so.

"We really need to wake them up," Marik said, breaking the silence.

"I agree, but..."

"How about this: I will wake up Kuriby if you wake up Bakura."

"Hm. Seems fair."

The two of them stood up and moved close to Bakura and Kuriby. Ryou gently lifted Bakura's ghostly hand while Marik gently picked up the sleeping kitten.

Before waking up their respective felines, however, the two hikaris gazed at their adorable sleeping faces for a while.

"You're right, Marik," Ryou said, no longer whispering because he didn't mind waking Bakura up anymore, since that was the point anyway. "Bakura _does_ look surprisingly adorable and innocent when he sleeps. I've never noticed that."

"That's because you've never watched him sleep."

"And you have?"

"Wha- No!" Marik looked at Bakura and his gaze turned suspicious. "Though I suspect that he watches me sleep. That would really freak me out if he does. I doubt it, but it is a possibility." Marik turned back to the kitten in his arms. "Ready?"

"Ready."

"Okay how should I do this?"

Ryou thought about that for a moment. "Well, I already know how to wake up Bakura. I've only had Kuriby for a few days and he's never needed to be woken up by me before. The first and last time _I_ woke him up was when he fell asleep on my head. I simply picked him up and he woke up.

"Is he a heavy sleeper or a light sleeper?"

"I don't think he's either. He might just sleep regularly. Try poking his stomach or tickling his ears or something like that."

Ryou turned to Bakura and hoped that he wasn't physical enough to hurt him when he woke up.

While Marik tried various things to wake Kuriby up, such as variations of Ryou's two suggestions, Ryou woke Bakura up using the only method he had ever tried and therefore the only method he ever dared to use. He gently scratched the spirit under his right eye. Because of their mind link (but if Kuriby could touch him, was the mind link even relevant?), Bakura felt it and started stirring. Two scratches later, Bakura shot up into a sitting position and punched Ryou in the chest with his eyes still closed. Thankfully, he wasn't physical enough to actually hurt him.

A second later, Bakura opened his eyes and looked at Ryou. He blinked indifferently, as if he didn't care (and we know he didn't) that he had almost punched his host in the chest. "Oops," he said simply. "Sorry about that, Yadonushi*****."

Ryou blinked in surprise. "I...what?" _Well that's a new one..._ "Uh...it's fine." Then he smiled. "I can't believe that you let Kuriby sleep on top of you. How is that even possible?"

"What, the act in itself or me letting it happen?"

"Erm... Both."

Bakura stood up and folded his arms. "Hello again, Marik," he said quickly, before addressing Ryou again. "Well as for how it's possible, I have no idea." He looked at Kuriby, who was still sleeping, but still spoke to Ryou. To Ryou's surprise, he smiled. "As for why I let it happen... Well let's just say that I don't hate Kuriby anymore. You can keep him if you want, Ryou. I'm okay with him. Mostly." He lowered his arms and looked at Marik and Ryou. "I'll see you two later, or tomorrow. This day has tired me out. And I don't hate either of you, but I've gotten tired of both of you. I'll be in my soul room. Ryou, you know what'll happen if you bother me again. See you two later."

And with that, Bakura faded away. Ryou sensed that he had gone to his soul room.

After a few seconds, Ryou turned to Marik with a small smile on his face. "Oh... kay. That was interesting. As I suspected, Bakura and Kuriby aren't as hostile towards each other anymore, as opposed to before."

"It could have been the fight that changed it," Marik said.

"You're right..." Ryou's smile faded and his face grew thoughtful. "Makes me wonder who really did fight off Melvin..." He finally noticed that Kuriby still hadn't woken up yet. "Are you having trouble waking up Kuriby?" He asked Marik.

"Not really. Maybe he just doesn't _want_ to wake up?"

"I don't know. Give him to me." He walked over to Marik and took Kuriby from him, then placed his kitty look-alike on his head. "He'll be fine up there."

"To be honest, I had given up once Bakura woke up and almost punched you. What was that thing he called you?"

"Uh..." Ryou blushed slightly, but Marik didn't notice. "Google Translate it******. I'd rather not tell you. But I'll just say that he isn't being as hostile to me, either."

Marik nodded like he understood, which he didn't. "Yeah okay."

Both hikaris suddenly turned their attentions to the sky. They looked at where the sun was. Neither was a master at telling time by the sun's position, but anyone could tell that it was getting late.

"Wow," Marik said. "It's getting late..."

Ryou glanced at him. "It is... We should get going. Bakura and I will see you tomorrow."

"Yeah. See you then..."

The two turned to each other and looked at each other silently, neither of them moving.

"A lot happened today," Ryou commented.

"I agree. And to think that this all started at the pet store..."

"Kuriby is such a cute little plot- I mean...no wait yes I mean 'plot'."

"I think this is one of those times when Aquailita has to change the Summary."

"Mmhmm."

"Keep the cat ears unless Bakura tells you to do otherwise."

"Oh..." Ryou reached up a hand and touched one of the fake ears. "I had forgotten about those."

"I think everyone had."

"This is all so confusing."

"I know."

"I think I need to sleep on it."

"So do I. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Where?"

"I dunno. Maybe Kuriby will be a little plot device again and make us meet up somewhere."

"I don't think so. I have a feeling that something else will happen."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Anything is possible at this point." Ryou randomly glanced to the side. "Melvin won't be coming back, right?" he asked nervously.

"For everyone's sake, I hope not. I'll try to keep him in as best I can."

"That's good..." Ryou suddenly focused on something else. He pointed at it. "We should really stop breaking that. I don't like how broken that looks. Anyone could easily get in."

Marik looked at it as well. "No. Not really. Not without her permission."

"True, but still. She could get ideas and someone could ask her and..." Ryou shivered slightly. "I don't know. Fourth-Wall breaking is just too bloody complicated and unpredictable for my liking. I'm just going to not think about it. Maybe it will fix itself before anything crazy happens. I'm going home now." Ryou turned away from Marik and in the direction of home. "See you tomorrow, Marik."

"See you tomorrow, Ryourik."

Ryou frowned. "Don't call me that. Do you irritate my yami this much with nicknames as well?"

"Like all the frigging time. Even more than I do you, cuz I just met you, after all. It's a hobby of mine. And it's fun. Every single nickname I give him suits him perfectly. He doesn't admit it, but I know deep down he loves it when I call him those nicknames."

Ryou shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Whatever you want to think, Marik. Bye."

"Bye."

At last, Ryou started walking away.

Marik sighed, and also started walking back to where he was staying.

* * *

***It means "landlord" in Japanese. I might have spelled it wrong. From what I've heard, it's something that Bakura apparently calls Ryou sometimes in the manga. I wouldn't know because I haven't read past Monster World in the manga. From the way I've seen some authors use it, Bakura calling Ryou this is a sign of him not being so abusive/hostile/mean to Ryou, maybe even a bit more caring. It's like a pet name as opposed to a convenient nickname (it's better than calling him "Vessel"). I don't really use the term all that much because I don't like using it, which is just a personal preference. But writers sometimes have to go outside of their comfort zones. You're welcome (^_^).  
**Ryou said this for a reason. Google Translate didn't give me "Yadonushi" when I typed in "Landlord". It didn't work for me, shouldn't work for you, and hopefully won't work for Marik.**

**As of right now, I have NO idea what will happen next chapter. Regular updates might stop again. But this story won't end even if updates are farther apart! I know that next chapter will take place the next day, but right now I don't know when I will update it or what will happen in it.  
****It seems like this story is in a bit of a decline. Not decline as in it's getting worse, but decline as in it's winding down. The end might be soon. I haven't forgotten that the story is titled "ThiefSlipping" and no matter how much this story seems to center around Kuriby, this story is still about thiefshipping. It's just also about a little bit more. Like cute things such as Ryou and Kuriby.  
In fact, to make up for Kuriby's hogging the plot, I'll try to make the next few chapters more about thiefshipping than anything else.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEEEEE~!**


	25. 22: Two Texting Thieves

**HELLO ONCE AGAIN! I came up with an idea! TEXTING! **

**A quick recap: Yami Bakura and Kuriby fall asleep while Bakura and Marik argue. The hikaris notice. While pondering whether they should wake the two kitties up, they reflect back on what happened the past few days. When Yami Bakura wakes up, he goes into his soul room. Kuriby doesn't wake up at all. Bakura and Marik decide to finally part and agree to meet again the next day.**

**HERE YOU GO! I tried to put more thiefshipping and less Kuriby in this. I didn't realize how popular Kuriby had gotten. Don't worry! He''l be back in a few chapters. For now, enjoy the sorely-needed amount of thiefshipping that is in this and the next few chapters.**

**This chapter starts off with Ryou being called "Bakura" in the beginning. This changes later in the chapter.**

**/ / is Marik, \ \ is Bakura.**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

_~The next morning~_

Bakura slowly opened his eyes. Moments later, he sat up in bed, stretching as he did.

He noticed two things wrong:  
One: There was a lack of weight on his head.  
Two: He was in his soul room.

"BLOODY FREAKING HELL!"

* * *

Bakura- the evil one- opened his eyes. Moments later, he sat up in bed, stretching as he did.

Something white and furry and cute fell off of his head.

"What the bugger...?" he mumbled.

The white furry thing opened his eyes and blinked sleepily at Bakura. He mewed groggily.

"Kuriby!' Bakura shouted, picking the sleepy kitty up. "Who the bloody hell said you could sleep on my head?"

Kuriby woke up fully and just stared at him innocently. "Mreow."  
_"Bakura did."_

"Well sod whatever he said. When I'm in control, you're not allowed to sleep on me, got it?"

Kuriby gave Bakura a look.

Bakura resisted the urge to smile (which is easy for him). "Yesterday was an exception. You're lucky I'm keeping you. Thank you for yesterday, but don't screw it up. I don't hate you, but I don't necessarily like you just yet."

"Meermm. Merw."  
_"Okay. Fine. *eyeroll*"_

Bakura eyed Kuriby skeptically. "Hmm. I'm watching you, cat." Bakura put Kuriby down. Kuriby jumped to the floor and ran out of the room.

Bakura stood up and stretched again. He felt around his neck. As expected, the chain was still there. The Millenium Ring was underneath Ryou's pajama shirt. Bakura didn't know if Ryou had left on the Ring on purpose, if he had intended to take it off but had forgotten, or if he had simply assumed he would still be in control in the morning. But it didn't matter and Bakura didn't care. What _did_ matter was that he was wearing the Ring and he was in control. After the drama of the past few days, it was a welcome and favorable change.

He looked around his host's room too see if anything had changed since he had last been there. The only noticeable change was on one of the walls. The one that Ryou had nailed the Millenium Ring to. His eyes locked on the nails that were still there. There were six there, and one on the floor beneath them. Bakura walked over to the fallen nail and picked it up.

He wondered how the Ring- still nailed to the wall at the time- had managed to teleport to Ryou when the nails had kept it from doing so for two days. What had happened?

_Thiefshipping_, Bakura thought. _That's what happened._

He sighed and looked around the room again. He tossed the nail somewhere on Ryou's desk. He then decided to search for his cell phone. He remembered that the night he had gotten back, he had put it somewhere on Ryou's desk. But he had forgotten where.

He was about to give up and look for Ryou's cell instead, but a sound from underneath a bunch of papers caught his ear. A small, but noticeable, _DING_.

Bakura rescued his cell phone from under the papers and looked at it. He had received a text from the person he had been about to text. He also noticed that he had missed a call from that same person, dated yesterday. He opened the text and read it.

/Morning. Where r we meeting./

Bakura smiled and laid back down on Ryou's bed. He texted back:  
\Morning. Nice timing.\  
\Should i bother with the voicemail?\

/Yes. Its lol-worthy/

\That prbly means i shouldnt bother. And i wont.\  
\IDK. You pick. You started this mess, after all.\

/Did not!/  
/YOU pick./

\And yes you did. You just HAD to kiss my host, didn't you?\  
\Too lazy, just woke up. You pick.\

/Fine. Mall or the alley. not the hotel./

Bakura's eyes widened briefly. _The alley..._ He knew which alley Marik was referring to. The one where they had met.

Bakura texted back. \"I believe this is called thiefshipping."\

/lolz/  
/Fine. Alley it is./  
/Is ur twin going 2 b there?/

\Which one?\

/The 1 u were cuddling w/ yesterday./  
/*icon of trollface*/

\...no comment on that.\  
\No. Hes staying here.\

/And my little prodigy?/

\As appealing as Ryou being on the evil side sounds, I like controlling him more. Stop trying to corrupt my host. It's annoying.\

/~3~/  
/Wear the cat ears? please?/

\no.\

/please?/

"MEW?!"

Bakura sat up and looked in the direction of the sound. He saw Kuriby sitting on the floor near the door. He looked like he was waiting for something.

"What?" Bakura asked.

Kuriby just stared at him.

Bakura stared back, wondering what Kuriby wanted.

Then he got it.

"You're waiting for me to feed you or something, aren't you?"

Kuriby smiled, then walked out.

Bakura rolled his eyes. "I don't want to, but I'm going to regret it later if I don't, so..." Bakura reluctantly got up and followed Kuriby.

Just as he left the room, Bakura received another text. But he was already out of earshot

* * *

When he got back to the room about twelve minutes later, he found several texts from Marik waiting for him. Each of them was exactly one minute apart. The first one had been sent a minute after the last one Bakura had read.

/PLEASE?/  
/k fine u dont have to. but u DO look cute in them ^3^/  
/kura? r u ignoring me?/  
/ryou if you took over again youd BETTER let Bakura out again/  
/okay fluffy now i think ur ignoring meh./  
/what did i say?/  
/hello?/

The last one had been sent five minutes ago.

"Stupid cat," Bakura mumbled as he started texting back. \Im here. Stupid cat wanted breakfast.\

A reply came two seconds later. /OMG THERE YOU ARE! I was wondering what had happened!/  
Then, several more seconds later, another reply came. /oh. Kuri. u fed him, right? youd better have./

Bakura suspected that the first text had been pre-typed and Marik had been holding his finger over the "send" button for the past five minutes.

\I did.\  
\so bloody impatient. or desperate.\

/I srsly thought u were ignoring me./

\could have called. you have the house #, not just my cell.\  
Bakura thought about that, and wondered why Marik hadn't done just that. \you were too frantic to think about that, werent you?\

/...maybe?/

Bakura smiled and rolled his eyes. \you know that you're too bloody annoying for me to ignore.\

/you never try hard enough/

\maybe i don't want to?\

/:)/  
/anyway get ur ass over here. the past 2-3 days may hav been interesting, but they have been lacking in evilness. we need to do evil stuff together/  
/OH WAIT! make sure kuri hasnt stolen the CoH again. ry flipped sht when he though he lost it./

\i kno. i saw the whole story, remember?\

/oh ya. rite./  
/i'll pick u up in the marikmobile/

\wha? there is no marikmobile.\

/SHUT THE FRIG UP YES THERE IS/

\if you mean your 'bloody' ;) motorcycle, then no. ill walk.\

/nope. too bad. im picking you up./

\whyyy? bloody hate that thing. id rather walk\

/no. i refuse. u'll take to long./

\you just want to see me again sooner and you just want me to hold on to you while we're riding.\

Bakura waited a few seconds for a reply, knowing how fast of a type Marik was. Bakura expected a reply to come after seven seconds, but it didn't come. Bakura immediately figured that he had hit the truth spot-on and caught Marik off guard. He smirked.

\im right, arent i?\  
\youre always too easy to figure out.\

This time, the reply came right when expected.

/fine. you got me. whats so wrong about wanting those two things?/  
/and don't you want to see ME sooner? did fluffy suddenly get shy or something?/  
/and what's wrong with being obvious about it when you already know?/

Now it was Bakura who hesitated. There wasn't anything wrong with it; Marik was right. Bakura couldn't quite explain why he had felt the need to draw attention to it. He actually had to think about it.

As he did, he got ready to leave. He changed out of Ryou's pajamas and into blue skinny jeans and one of Ryou's many blue and white striped shirts. On a whim, he decided to also put on an open black long-sleeved sweater, just because he wanted to wear something black but didn't think that his super evil and super sexy trench coat would be appropriate for his meeting with Marik. Usually Bakura didn't care about dressing for the occasion, but today was different, and he _did_ care.

He also checked Ryou's arm injury. The scratches had closed but hadn't healed completely so Bakura left the bandages on.

He searched for and pocketed three things: his cell phone, his deck, and Ryou's keys.

When he had pocketed the last item, he finally realized why he'd said what he'd said and thought of how to respond to Marik's last few texts. He took out his phone and texted Marik back.

\because its just odd. i tried to drop hints, but stayed subtle, and got nowhere. you were obvious, but oblivious. now we both know, and it feels odd. i don't know how to react to this situation. never thought it would happen.\

/.../

\you DO realize tht i dont plan to ONLY talk about evil when we meet, right?\

/i figured. you dont wanna talk evil at all, do u?/

\for once, no.\

/im fine with tht. but im still picking u up/

\should i wait outside or will you come up?\

/come down now. ill b there sooner than u think/

\ure not THAT fast\

/Just get down here, Fluffy./

Bakura's eyes locked on the word "here". He put the pieces together. Marik was already outside. In fact, he had probably arrived just before he had first texted. "Of course he would have... Well I'd better not keep my... Better not keep him waiting."

He ran to the kitchen and looked around for Kuriby. He found the kitten on top of the fridge, exploring the various items on it. "Hey, Kuriboh," Bakura called to him.

Kuriby glared at him and hissed.  
_"Not Kuriboh."_

"I don't care. It's better than calling you 'Bakura Jr.', which we both hate, so deal with it. I'm going out and leaving you here. Don't destroy anything and stay out of trouble."

Kuriby just blinked at him.

"Okay then..." He walked out of the kitchen and headed for the front door.

He opened the door and took one step outside. Before moving further, he looked down at the Millenium Ring. He put a hand over it, closed his eyes, and sighed deeply.

He stayed silent and still for a few moments. Then he opened his eyes and sighed again. He stepped out of the apartment completely. "Looks like things are finally slipping apart," he muttered as he closed and locked the door behind him.

_Or are they?_

* * *

**Yes. I HAD to use the word 'slipping'. I just HAD to.**

**So is thiefshipping slipping apart when it just got together? I don't know. Think about it. Think about what, exactly? I don't know. Think about it. **

**Anyway guess what...**

**I KNOW WHAT IM GOING TO BE DOING FOR THE NEXT HANDFUL OF CHAPTERS! Isn't that wonderful? I will actually be updating MORE often than usual because I have a LOT of chapters typed out and ready to be edited. Expect more than one update a week from now on. Two, at least.**

**Thanks for all of the reviews so far I appreciate every one of them!**

_Well speaking of reviews...what do you know? Never thought this crap would become popular again. We hit 40 reviews. That's an astonishing improvement since the 20 we had back in chapter "10", or whatever number it is._

**Bakura! How the bloody frig on a nyeh of screwed rules that say shut up to to bleep on a bleep sandwich did you get back in here?!**

_*facepalms at my ridiculousness*  
I decided to pop in here one last time. (Or maybe not the last. heh heh heh)_

**Well get out. You're not allowed to be an insert-hacker anymore!**

_No. I have some unfinished business with you..._

***shivers a little and backs away*  
W-what?**

___*grins evilly*_  
*takes out bedpost*

**Hey...isn't that min-**

_*knocks me out with it*_  
_Payback's a bitch, but revenge is just too sweet._  
_*looks at all of you*  
*tosses the bedpost away*  
Hi there. Move along. Nothing to see here. Anyone who insists that I did something to her is going to spend all of eternity in the Shadow Realm. And also apparently totally naked, according to Zorc. I'll be ending the chapter for you since our authoress seems to be...'_napping_' right now.  
*winks very sexily*_

***several fangirls faint, reducing the number of conscious (and overall) witnesses***

_*Laughs evilly*_

_See you next chapter._

_BYEEEEEEEEEEE!_


	26. 23: Ready And Waiting

**HERE IS YOUR SECOND UPDATE! Because I am in a really good mood this week.**

**Don't worry! I'm okay! I'm not even injured.  
*has a six-pound bag of ice cubes taped to the top of my head*  
****Just kidding it only weighs two pounds.**

**Thiefshipping complications? Hopefully not.**

**BTW, I wrote that chapter all in one day, just for you. You're welcome. Hopefully, this chapter will be the same, and within a week I'll have like seven more chapters for you. (typed, not updated. meaning seven more chapters, not seven more updates.)**

**A quick recap: Yesterday, Marik kissed Bakura to get Yami Bakura out, letting both Bakuras know that he does, in fact, love Yami Bakura romantically and/or physically. This morning, Yami Bakura woke up instead of Bakura. Today, Marik and Yami Bakura text about meeting up. Yami Bakura says that he plans to talk about their relationship, and chooses the meeting place to be the alley they first met in. Marik is okay with all of that, and offers to pick Yami Bakura up so they can get there sooner.**

**So... I think this story might be coming to an end sometime soon. We still have a few more chapters to go. This just might end up being the most interesting thiefshipping fanfic you've ever read. Not the best; the most interesting and eye-opening. You'll see what I mean. **

**And don't worry, there will be more Kuriby. Just not right now.**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

As he had suspected, Bakura found Marik waiting right outside the apartment, leaning against his obligatory anime motorcycle that was parked in front of the building. He waved at Bakura.

Bakura waved back.

When Bakura walked within earshot, Marik greeted him. "Morning. Again. Have a nice catnap?"

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Shut up."

"Did you listen to the voicemail?"

Bakura closed his eyes in annoyance and said, "No. I didn't."

"Lies! You listened to it on the way down, didn't you?"

"Fine. You got me. You're so bloody ridiculous sometimes, you know?"

"I know. But that's what you like about me, right?"

Bakura opened his eyes. "Sometimes I think that you're so easy to figure out. Other times, I think you know me better than I know you. It's..."

"...odd?" Marik suggested.

"Yeah. That. Let's get going, shall we?"

"Yes. We shall. But first..." Marik took a step closer to Bakura and reached for his head.

"What the bloody hell are you..." Bakura stopped talking when Marik's hand rested on his head. Marik's hand began moving back and forth gently and rhythmically. Bakura couldn't help it; his eyes slid closed, he smiled faintly, and purred like a kitty cat.

After what felt like five minutes to him, but was really only ten seconds, the hand moved away from him. He opened his eyes and found Marik's face two inches away from his. Bakura didn't flinch or move away. "It still works. Bakitty."

"Hey, watch it, Ishtar. I'll deal with 'Fluffy' and 'Kitty' and 'Kura', but only my fangirls are allowed to call me 'Bakitty'."

"Guess what? I don't care."

"That's my line."

"I still don't care." And with that, Marik closed the distance between their faces for just a moment to give Bakura a quick kiss on the lips. It was over too soon for Bakura's liking. "Now let's go."

Marik turned to his motorcycle and stepped to the side, revealing Marik's helmet on the seat. "You don't need one," Marik said. "Your hair is so cushiony that it's practically _two_ helmets."

"Haha you're so hilarious."

"I know, right." Marik mounted the motorcycle and put his helmet on. "Get on," he ordered Bakura.

Bakura didn't hesitate to comply. He mounted the motorcycle behind Marik, fidgeting around until he got comfortable.

"Uh, Marik? I can feel your Rod rubbing against my leg."

Marik's eyes went all wide and surprised. "What?! How the [EFF!] is that even possible when you're sitting behind me?!"

"Marik, I meant your _Millenium_ Rod. Could you move it?"

"OOOOHHHH okay sorry." Marik took the Millenium Rod out of the belt loop it was tucked into and secured it to a strap in front of him.

Bakura smirked. _I though _I_ was supposed to be the one with the dirty mind._ "Thank you. Now let's get moving already. I want to get off of this death trap as soon as possible."

Bakura hugged Marik's waist tightly. "Ack! Not so tight, Fluffy!"

Bakura mumbled an incoherent apology, then loosened his grip slightly. He then turned his head to the side and rested it on Marik's shoulder.

Marik smiled. He turned his head to the side so he could look Bakura in the eye, which was partially visible through a curtain of fluffy white hair. "Just don't distract me, okay?"

"Sure. Of course I'll distract you. Because I definitely want you to lose control and kill both of us. That's a very important part of my evil plan."

Marik rolled his eyes and faced forward. "Sure okay." He started up the motorcycle and they sped off.

On impulse, Bakura hugged Marik more securely, but not more tightly. He moved his legs forward, hooked his ankles with Marik's and pulled Marik's legs backwards slightly.

Marik smiled as he felt Bakura's body relax. He rode on, heading for they alleyway in which they had both met.

* * *

**I've been wondering a lot recently if my style of writing this story has become TOO different from then to recently... But whatever.**

**Short chapter, I know. And the first one without Kuriby in it at all!**

**You know what I said in the OpeningAN about this coming to an end soon? LIES I TELL!  
There are SO many more chapters after this. It may have seemed like the story was winding down, but it's about to get crazy and wind up again! This story isn't ending anytime soon and might even continue through the summer all the way to September! I don't know. But I thought of another part of the story and I typed up a lot more chapters on my iPod recently, so there's a long way to go. This just might be my longest story yet, even longer than FDtBE and maybe even Triangular Hallway. I don't know. Just have fun and prepare yourself for a lot more chapters!**

**Next chapter takes place in the alley. I predict that it'll be a long and drama-filled and very emotional one. Brace yourselves!**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEEEEE~!**


	27. 24: An Alleyway Adversity

**And so we go to where it all began.**

**A quick recap: Yami Bakura wakes up instead of Bakura Ryou. He and Marik text back and forth on their plans to meet up, and Yami Bakura wants to meet in the alley they first met in. Marik agrees to pick him up. Leaving Kuriby behind, Yami Bakura goes downstairs and finds Marik waiting for him. They ride off together to talk in the alleyway where thiefshipping began.**

**So this chapter is going to be so OMG DRAMA BOMB!**

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Marik decelerated to a stop.

Bakura picked up his head and looked around. "Marik, this isn't the alleyway. Why are we stopping?" Marik had stopped several meters from one entrance to it. It was an entrance that was _very_ familiar to Bakura, and he was surprised that Marik knew where it was.

"Because I was wondering if you wanted to do a bit of re-enacting. This is the way you entered the alley, right?"

Marik turned his head so he could see Bakura's head in case he didn't answer verbally, which he didn't. He nodded silently. "But... Really, Marik? Why?"

"For the hell of it?"

Bakura gave Marik an odd look.

* * *

**~Transitiony!~**

* * *

"Born To Be Wild" was playing in the background, somehow.

Marik did a wheelie as he turned a corner in the alleyway.

Bakura ran forward, then stopped in the middle of the alley way and spread his arms apart.

Marik screeched to a halt, saying "What the crap?!" as he did. The music stopped.

"You almost got us both killed, jackass," he said to Bakura. He got off the motorcycle, took off his helmet, and grabbed his Millenium Rod.

"I don't care," Bakura said. "I'm looking for gay people, and my gaydar led me to you. That means you are gay."

"I am not gay!" Marik shot back. "I like women."

"You like _acting _and_ looking _like one, that's for sure. You're as gay as a Square Enix character."

"I would think of a clever and biting retort but you have a Millenium Item so I will hold off on insulting you to ask about it."

"It's the Millenium Ring and it's mine. I use it to do evil things, as well as find gay people, which can also be evil in certain contexts."

"Why are you looking for gay people?"

"Because I'm not British, I'm just gay, and I don't care."

"Frig damn it, Bakura!" Marik shouted, breaking character. "You messed it up. That's not even remotely close to what you said."

Bakura folded his arms and smirked. "I know. Trololo."

"Frig you and your trolling. You ruined a perfectly good reenacting even though we didn't actually say exactly what we said before."

"Because shut up. Screw the rules I'm British."

"I thought you said you weren't British."

"Trololo again."

"Bakura, are you acting OOC on purpose or are you just trolling?"

"Maybe both?"

"Well if you're stalling then you contradicted yourself because you said you wanted to get here as soon as possible."

"That was you."

"Oh frig it."

"I agree. Let's get down to business, shall we?" Bakura moved over to the side of the alley and leaned against the wall, putting his foot up on that box that was still there.

"Okay..." Marik walked closer to him. "Where do you wanna start?"

Bakura's smirk faded and was replaced by a slight frown. "I... I guess with what happened yesterday."

"Which part?"

"That kiss?"

Marik blushed slightly and looked away. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"What in the name of Zorc compelled you to kiss my host? And don't say because of me; that's not the answer I'm looking for."

"Well I..." Marik began nervously. "Well I had made plans to see you. Ryou being out ruined them. I tolerated him for a while and actually became friends with him, but I didn't forget that I was supposed to be hanging out with _you_, not him. When he came down without the Millenium Ring again, I guess I just cracked. I wanted to see you again. I couldn't help it. When he got in my face and yelled at me I just...kissed him."

Bakura was silent for a few moments before replying. "Again, that's not the answer I was looking for. I know—more or less—why you did it. What I want to know is why you did _that_. Why did you think that kissing my host was going to do anything for anyone?"

"I have no idea! Maybe I just..." Marik mumbled this next part, "...reallywantedtokissyou?" He spoke normally again. "I had already mentally mistaken him for you several times before. I guess my mind got confused again and I thought that kissing him would be the next best thing to kissing you..."

Bakura grinned slightly. "So you admit that you wanted me before."

Marik looked up at Bakura and lowered his hand. "What?"

"You admitted, just now, that you _wanted_ to kiss me. That means that your feelings were already there before all of this happened, right?"

Marik remained silent.

"Marik!" Bakura shouted. He took his foot off of the box, pushed away from the wall, and took a step closer to Marik. His face was slightly irritated. "Tell me the truth. _Did_ you already have feelings for me before? And how far back?"

Marik sighed. "Fine, yes, and Battle City," he answered.

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Well, that narrows it down," he said sarcastically. "'Battle City'. The _season_—season, mind you—of thiefshipping, as the fangirls like to think of it. _When_ in Battle City, Marik?"

"Erm... When we got on the blimp?"

Bakura's expression softened. "Huh. I would've thought that it would have been when you invaded my dreams in the hospital."

"What about you? When did _you_ fall for me?"

Bakura scoffed and waved his hand. "Don't insult me, love. My loyalty went way farther back. My heart's been set on you since you almost ran me over."

Marik raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? You hadn't even seen me in all my sexy entirety because my helmet and part of the motorcycle was blocking your view."

The hand lowered and moved to Bakura's hip. "You forget that although we hadn't met until that moment, I knew you existed before Battle City. Try YGOTAS Season 2 Episode 1."

Marik's eyes widened. "What?"

"When I interfered with your Shadow Game with Yugi. I'd been tracking your gay signal since then," Bakura said, lifting up the Millenium Ring and swinging it gently. "This thing knows destiny and fate. It's the Millenium Ring! The Millenium Ring controls time and space! Love and death! This Ring can see into your mind! THE RING CAN SEE INTO YOUR _SOUL_!"

"Really? The Ring can do all that?"

"Heh. No. But the signal was pretty strong compared to other gay signals it had picked up before. That had to have meant something, I figured." Bakura's face grew serious and he let the Ring drop. "But going back to why I asked you in the first place, why did you constantly deny it? Although I wasn't being obvious about _my_ feelings, I wast exactly being 100% subtle, either. Why were you so insistent that you weren't gay when it was _obvious_, like _really_ obvious, that you were?"

Marik grinned knowingly. He moved closer to Bakura and sat down on the box Bakura had put his foot on earlier. He folded his hands and looked up at Bakura. "There's a thing or two you haven't quite mastered about the concept of fandoms, Fluffy."

Bakura turned to face him and folded his arms. "Go on."

"The first thing is fangirls. You claim to love your fangirls even though you don't really like all of them and think, like most other YGO characters do, that they're annoying. It's good that you say on-screen that you love them, though. And you certainly know how to fanservice. But not like me." Marik leaned back and put a hand on his chest proudly. "I am a master of fanservice. Especially of the physical kind. I am always thinking of the fangirls in everything I do. I know them and what they want to see, and I act accordingly. It's in the way I dress, the way I walk, the way I stand, the way I look evilly, even the way I act with you." Marik lowered his hand and leaned forward.

Bakura decided to sit down in front of the box. "Okay. So you know how to be sexy. And it works. I know how to be sexy as well. I also have fangirls. What's your point?"

"That last one, Bakura, is where we contrast greatly in skill and method. We don't act the same around each other. There's a slight difference between regular thiefshipping and abridged thiefshipping. You know which one is more popular with the fangirls?"

"Abridged thiefshipping, of course," Bakura replied automatically. "Because somehow, you and I are ten times sexier when we break the Fourth Wall and are much gayer. Obviously."

"That's not all. Our relationship is much more amusing and dynamic than that of our subbed/dubbed/manga counterparts. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

Bakura rolled his eyes. "No. I don't. I never know where you're going with anything, Marik. Never have."

"Well then pay close attention. The fangirls like how in denial I am and how I always dance around the question of whether I like you or not and they like how much I piss you off. And they like how perverted your mind is and how much of a sub you are in the relationship and how much of a uke you are in bed..."

"Not a uke," Bakura interrupted.

"Bitch please you be so uke that you last name be 'Uke'. Now don't interrupt. The fangirls also like what you like about me. They like how I deny every single hint or sign that I'm gay or like you in any way. And guess what, Bakura? I do that ON _PURPOSE_."

Bakura's eyes widened in realization. It was true. All of it. Everything Marik had said made perfect sense and everything he had done before made sense. Except...

"But...why? Does that mean that everything I have been doing to try to get you to admit it has been..."

"In vain? Of course not. You've been playing your part perfectly. And so have I. I did it all for the fangirls. Thiefshipping is more interesting this way."

Bakura's face suddenly hardened. He turned his head away from Marik and stared at a random spot on the ground. "Oh I get it now," he said, his voice slightly cold.

Marik instantly noticed his change in demeanor. "What? What do you get?"

"That none of this was real." He frowned deeply and his eyes narrowed. "You knew...and you acted knowingly. You were never as ignorant as I thought. Everything was planned. And for, of all people, for the fangirls."

Marik's face grew worried. He leaned forward and tried to look Bakura in the eyes, which was difficult when he was looking the other way. "Bakura... What are you trying to say?"

Bakura suddenly stood up. He was still looking the other way. "I love my fangirls as well and I love giving them fanservice as well. I even care about Ryou's fangirls a bit and I take them into consideration as well. And I also care about the fangirls you and I share. But I would never choose them over you." He turned away from Marik. His body was tense and his arms were straight at his sides. "Ever."

Marik's eyes widened. He stood up and walked behind Bakura. He put a hand on the spirit's shoulder. "Bakura, you aren't suggesting that..."

"You cared more about pleasing your fangirls than you did about me or your feelings for me?" Bakura guessed, his voice even colder. He turned his head to look at Marik. "Perhaps I am."

"But Bakura, that's not—"

Bakura shrugged Marik's hand off of his shoulder, then whipped around to face him. He swiftly put his left arm around Marik's waist and his right hand behind Marik's head. He pressed their bodies together.

Marik barely had time to react, even to blink in surprise. Bakura titled his head to the side slightly, tilted Marik's head down, closed his eyes, and pressed their lips together gently.

Marik's eyes automatically slid closed. He didn't move and just let Bakura kiss him, afraid that moving might ruin the moment or set the spirit off.

The kiss was all lip; no tongue, and it was surprisingly sweet and gentle considering that it was Bakura.

Bakura let go of Marik's head and wrapped his other arm around Marik's waist. He ended up trapping Marik's arms underneath his own. But it didn't really matter because Marik didn't plan on doing anything with his arms anyway.

Bakura ended the kiss sooner than expected. He moved his head away from Marik's and removed his arms. His eyes still closed, the took a step back.

Marik opened his eyes and looked at Bakura sadly.

Marik tried again. "Bakura, that's not what—"

"I don't care," Bakura said in a monotone. "I don't want to hear it right now."

He opened his eyes and took two more steps away from Marik.

"Don't follow me. I need time to think."

Marik just stood there, confused and worried...and a bit sad and hurt.

"I'll see you...I don't know when. But I'll see you."

Bakura turned around and started walking out of the alleyway, back the way he came. He didn't look back.

When he had exited, he turned sharply to the left and walked out of sight without another word.

* * *

**Oh no! Could it all be over between the two of them?!  
Could thiefshipping be in danger?!  
Could everything finally be...SLIPPING apart?  
(Yes I did just make that pun again.)**

**FIND OUT IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!**

**There was a reference in here. Kudos to you if you can find it, AND if you know where it's from.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEEEEEE~!**


End file.
